(2) Morning BM's Within 5 minutes. One formed, one not so much.

I have gained quite a bit of control over my urgency lately. I'm down to having an average of 3 BM's per day. A lot of times I have 2 of then within a few minutes of each other in the morning... a little while after waking. The first one is very formed, with that sort of cracking up look... where the water has been sucked out of it by a colon that is working. BUT, the second one works its way over and wants out right away. Is there any cause and effect type explanation for this? After the morning BM's I can last til after work, often up to at least 12 hours... and sometimes until the next morning. Why doesn't my stool just bulk up bigger? The formed BM is about the diameter of a quarter or so... and maybe 10-12 inches long. The next one comes along... and it's diameter is larger, but it falls apart easily.

I have little traces of blood in the stools sometimes, but very little. I still have a low-grade burning sensation in my upper left colon. I'm trying to heal it as much as I can.

The longer the stool remains in the colon the firmer it will be as the water is further absorbed by the colon. A good soluble fiber can help bulk things up as will calcium & white rice.

I have that experience, also. And my pattern is very much like the one you describe! sometimes I'll have 3 BMs in the morning "cluster" (as my old GI used to call it.... I guess the "morning cluster" of BMs is pretty common.)

Usually my first one will be well-formed, but the second or third will be soft and, um, fluffy. I figure that's because the first one has been in the colon longer and has had more liquid absorbed out if it.

You say you've made progress in regard to the urgency......I hope the texture also continues to improve! I find that "fine-tuning" the last bit of inflammation can take a lot of patience. It sounds as if you're on the right track!

Morning cluster is my norm too- and when I have a formed one it often tails into mud, loose or liquid D just as described.

Our colons awake in the a.m. and this makes those of us with IBD go more than we should. I have caught myself in the morning after a good BM then feeling I could go even more and presto, mush. Training yourself to resist urges takes a long time and it's something ucwarrior used to preach here. With respect to the soluable fiber if more gives you D then by all means take less; the extra calcium carbonate and white rice should help bulk things up. Its going to take time until you find the right blend of things to help you as will the mind body control to tell yourself you really don't need to go again. My wife has ibs and for the longest time she was running to the bathroom even after she just went two or three times, I finally convinced her of the brain gut connection and after many months of trail and error she can finally control her urges much better, not perfect but much better. For those of us with UC it's even harder to do let alone those like me with UC and ibs, but it can be done. This obviously does not work/ work as well when in a flare. Hope this helps.

I have the same problem. Except the second urge might come up to an hour after and by that time I not usually near the bathroom.

I found that psyllium seed powder (as opposed to psyllium seed husk powder) really helps me. I recently ran out and things are really falling apart. This post https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=1701066 has some info about it and where to buy it.

As far as theories go, I wonder if it indicates more active disease or malfunctioning colon near the rectum. I am thinking, after the multiple morning movements we have purged a large part of our colon. Then the following stool has lots of functional colon to pass through and have the water absorbed out of it. By the time it reaches the rectum it is the next morning and the stool is more formed. We pass the formed stool and then the mush fills the lower colon/rectum. If things were normal the mush would sit there and get water sucked out of it and become formed, but our inflamed colon freaks out and purges.... the cycle continues.