Learned Something NEW About My Colitis Symptoms Yesterday

Yesterday, (Saturday) I finally broke down and went to the emergency room for these constant low-grade fevers I have been having for the past 5 days and some mild abdominal pain. I live in the Cleveland area, with no insurance, but luckily, the Cleveland Clinic bases your visits on a sliding scale income, so I'll be interested to see what my final bill is for my ER visit yesterday...

Anyway, I have been having some sinus drainage and cough, extremely fatigued and night-sweats and joint pains in my knees on top of the fevers and the massive amounts of bloody D. I seriously can not tell if these were all symptoms of my Ulcerative Colitis, or I had something going on, on TOP of my Colitis!

Well, they took a bunch of blood, urine and then gave me a cat scan and hooked me up to some IVs. Turns out, that they didn't really see any bacterial infection (which is good, I'd hate to take another darn anti-biotic) so apparently I have some kind of virus on top of my colitis symptoms. But, what I had NO IDEA was that they said I was severely constipated!!! Now, maybe I'm just a slow learner, but I always thought that when you had D, that everything was going right through you and kinda 'cleaning you out' so to speak. NOT TRUE!!!!

Even though I've been having my lovely, massive bloody D 10-15 a day because I'm flaring, I am severely constipated on top of it! Unbelievable! So the Dr. gave me a Fleet enema and told me to go home and use it.

Now, I've been prescribed the steroid enemas in the past by my regular GI. I can hold them in for about 10 seconds before I have to let it out. I don't know what the trick is to holding them in longer, so if anyone who is an expert here on enemas can fill me in, that would be great.

I'm wondering now if that constipation is what is causing the low-grade fevers, or if I just have some type of flu going on too, since I have a cough and sinus drainage. The night-sweats are very annoying, and COLD! And it's now day 6 with the fevers that are keeping me from working or getting anything done with a 4 year old to take care of.

But, now I know, just because you have massive D, you can STILL BE CONSTIPATED! Unbelievable!

blueclassring said...
Try evacuating with a bowel movement before putting an enema in. That usually helps. Also, you may want to consider taking an immodium 30 minutes before putting on in. You need to have an enema's contents in you for at least 30 minutes for it to be somewhat efficacious.

Is there a limit to how many enemas you are supposed to do a day, or week when you have UC? I was told by someone on here to try the Vitamin E enemas to stop the bleeding. Do you suggest those, or just anything to get the stool soft enough to dislodge and come out?

I always thought this too. How can you be constipated and have diarrhea at the same time? Is it that something is stuck higher up?

It is the strangest thing to me as well. I have been having plenty of bloody D, mucus, and puddles of 'whatever' at the bottom of my toilet, but the Dr. said the reason why I was having lower abdominal pain was due to the extreme constipation! He said I had a LOT of stool inside me! I am serious, I had no idea that a person could go through all that D, and still be severely constipated, but that's what is going on.

I guess either it's stuck and the D is going around it, or something. I am going to see my regular GI on Tuesday and will report back to you all and let you know what he says about it.

I too am surprised, I thought D was pretty much the opposite of C.  So how can you have both at the same time?  Weird.

I'd be interested to know what your regular GI doc says about it.

 

They did a CAT scan on me to see what was going on in my abdomen since I was complaining about lower abdominal pain. That's how he saw the amount of stool.

As far as my D and my bowel movements, well, they're inconsistent, random, and all over the place. I've been running to the bathroom with pain and urgency lately about 10-12 x a day or so.

Sometimes I will have this extreme urgency and then nothing but just a few drops of blood come out, sometimes I will go with a little mucus or puddle of 'something' at the bottom of the toilet, sometimes I will just PEE out of my rear end, just liquid coming out, with blood, and then sometimes I'll have an actual loose pile of semi-formed stool come out, usually with blood. Then I will also have those 'pass gas, then D, and then a semi-formed stool concoction' coming out. Basically, my stools always look like a bloody massacre. Occasionally, I'll have times when there's no blood.

Honestly, I was wondering why all these urgent trips to the bathroom, yet nothing of real 'weight and substance' was coming out, except in liquid form, D, or semi-piles; if any of that makes any sense. But the Dr. did assure me when I double checked that it is possible for you to have D and be constipated at the same time. I am going to the GI on Tuesday and will relate back to you all what he tells me about this. But, somehow I am predicting a lot of enemas in my future.

The only meds I am on right now is ASACOL and TYLENOL for the fevers, no steroids. Pred and I don't get along too well. I'm trying to avoid it like the plague.

Good to know, Quincy, I will bring up the rectal meds and the Rowasa, (which I am unfamiliar with) to my GI on Tuesday. I've had only a little experience with the enemas, will definitely need some hand-holding with how to do those correctly.

Thank you!

subdued said...
Could scar tissue be causing blockage in some places?

I believe he did say he saw some 'thickening' in my CAT scan. This could be the reason! My Dr. better be on his mental best on Tuesday because he's going to get hit with a ton of questions, lol.

Ok, I just got back from my GI today. He does NOT think that I am constipated and that the Dr. at the ER in the hospital misread the CAT SCAN, so he's waiting on the copy of the CAT SCAN to show up at his office so he can look at it. He told me to NOT do any enemas!

In the meantime, he's got me on the dreaded PRED! I am to take 40mg (4 pills at 10mg) for 5 days and then call his office to see where I am at with my flare before I know how much more to take.

He then gave me a generic anti-biotic Flagyl in case it's the C-DIFF thing going on to cover THAT base.

He then gave me a few oxycodone for the horrible pains I get all freaking day long and night, but I'm scared to try that because I throw up on Vicodin and do well on Darvocet, but they took Darvocet off the market because it causes heart problems.

THEN, since he is sooooo awesome and sooooo handsome and sooooooo German, LOL, he gave me one month's free supply of his LIALDA samples and told me to stop taking my generic Asacol because he knows I don't have insurance right now and if I didn't have a son to raise I would shoot myself in the head because of this nasty disease. I thought that was very, VERY awesome of him. I was in tears at his office today.

So, now we wait to solve the mystery of whether or not I'm constipated or not.... and to see what this dreaded Pred is going to do. The first and only time I took it before was for almost 8 weeks during my pregnancy and I HATTTTED it.

songlady said...
Right before my son was diagnosed, his PCP sent him for an xray and they said he was constipated - but I was sure they'd misread it and just saw thickening, inflammation and bleeding as stool (because that's what they expected to see, in most cases.)

Glad your doc is compassionate.

Did you ask about the Rowasa.....? They can really help with that inflammation at the bottom.

No darn it, I forgot! When I call on Monday to check in about the Prednisone, I will ask him about the Rowasa. Thanks for reminding me.

Yeah, I didn't think it was right.

I don't get why he put you on pred and no rectal meds instead. It's unfortunate you forgot to ask before the pred.


feel better soon.
q

I am having a similar scenario, so your situation is definitely interesting to me. I started my flare with what really seemed like constipation. The doc advised me to take miralax daily indefinitely. I started it for a few days then stopped when the cramping and urgency got bad. I had one semi formed bm in the first day or so but nothing more. The pressure and feeling that I was constipated resumed after a couple days off the miralax so I started it again. The last few days I have been going to the bathroom constantly and it seemed almost like a colonoscopy prep- passing yellow-brown liquid. Also some blood, some clottish type things. I also passed some small bits of solids that felt bigger than they actually were. I skipped the miralax this morning and have less urgency and fewer trips to the toilet so far today. I still feel like there is a golf ball in there trying to come out but I am more thinking that this is the rectal inflammation more stool.

I do think that liquid can seep around constipated stool and look like diarrhea.

I had repeat blood work done yesterday and am expecting a call from the doctor today with results. I am going to ask about this because I am tired of it all. I'm trying canasa suppositories twice daily and that does seem to help some...

 

kks said...
I am having a similar scenario, so your situation is definitely interesting to me. I started my flare with what really seemed like constipation. The doc advised me to take miralax daily indefinitely. I started it for a few days then stopped when the cramping and urgency got bad. I had one semi formed bm in the first day or so but nothing more. The pressure and feeling that I was constipated resumed after a couple days off the miralax so I started it again. The last few days I have been going to the bathroom constantly and it seemed almost like a colonoscopy prep- passing yellow-brown liquid. Also some blood, some clottish type things. I also passed some small bits of solids that felt bigger than they actually were. I skipped the miralax this morning and have less urgency and fewer trips to the toilet so far today. I still feel like there is a golf ball in there trying to come out but I am more thinking that this is the rectal inflammation more stool.
I do think that liquid can seep around constipated stool and look like diarrhea.

I had repeat blood work done yesterday and am expecting a call from the doctor today with results. I am going to ask about this because I am tired of it all. I'm trying canasa suppositories twice daily and that does seem to help some...

Most of my BMs for the past year have been basically like all blood and mucus and small blood clots, with small, next to nothing "pieces" in the toilet of stool, and you wonder and wonder if you are getting it all out, despite the fact that you're only running to the bathroom 10-12 times a day!

I mean, if we are spending that much time in the bathroom, darn it, we better have some productivity instead of a little stream of blood or even a couple drops of whatever decides to come out! All this happening of course, while I'm pulling my hair and sweating from the pain of the urgency and letting it out.... UGHhhhh, UC is so EVIL.

ULCERATIVE COLITIS MAKES SATAN LOOK LIKE A DORKY LITTLE WIMP, lol....