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Why is UC the worst in the mornings?

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 12/23/2011 5:24 AM (GMT 0)
Am I the only one who thinks that UC is the worst in the morning? Anyone know why? Every morning I wake up and immediately run to the bathroom. I have urgencies for the first two hours of my morning and then the rest the day is more calm, barely going in the afternoon/night now that my flare is coming to an end. Even when my flare up was at its worst the mornings were always unbearable. Love some feedback.
Posted 12/23/2011 7:50 AM (GMT 0)
It's normal....when you open your eyes, your whole body awakens. If you're flaring..just the fact that the colon gets into functioning gear, the stimulation will get you going.

Anything in the low colon will trigger the process, it will increase the peristalsis, and if you're flaring...the spasming will join in on the fun until all is emptied out and the rectum/sigmoid have no more to contribute.

Why are you on 20mg pred? are you tapering from a higher dosage?

You should also be on retention enemas rather than the supps.

Is your UC limited to just the rectum or higher?

welcome to the forum, by the way.
q
Posted 12/23/2011 8:04 AM (GMT 0)
Oh yeah bad bad mornings! I call them good moaning!

Quincy has a point, everything tends to wake up. If i stay a bit in bed i might just have plenty of gas if i start to walk or have a drink get out of my way!
Quincy said its all the spasm as well and i agree. I don't have those later during the day. And my urgencies during the day are gone (yeah).
I used to have one after lunch or after work and now its gone.

I have uc in the first 30 cm of my rectum and started the retention enemas this summer. For some its instant, but for me its a long term battle. Bt at the end of the end, I don't have those urgencies during the day. So I won a bit.

They also helped me in the mornings, I still have some urgencies or mucus in the morning but weird enough i can wait a bit. And rarely more than 2 bms so overall the picture has improved.

It's up to you for your meds. I might have quicer results with prednisone I dunno but im not interested in them now. So I work on my enemas and patient. Bare in mind I was in a constant mild flare for years.

It's good to always allow yourself enough time for the morning. It takes the stress out and you have more chance to empty properly yourself. There is nothing worst than being on the underground on the way to work and have this huge pressure on your bum!!
Also probiotics have been beneficial for many of us and if so they tend to decrease your amount of gas. A plus.

take care
stefanie
Posted 12/23/2011 1:02 PM (GMT 0)
 

Thats normal for most people, even without UC.  I am still that way even though I have been in remission for over a year.  Kind of a good thing really, allows you to go about the rest of your day without problems.

 

Posted 12/23/2011 3:36 PM (GMT 0)
Even on my best days, when in remission, I can't leave the house before 11 AM.
When they told me my UC was going to be a lifelong thing -this is what they meant!
Posted 12/23/2011 4:40 PM (GMT 0)
My whole family and myself has been like that forever I think. Even before UC I would wake up with a stomach ache and have to go to the bathroom.

When I was in a flare, THE WORST was at night/early morning. I would wake up at 2am, 4am, 6am, and have so much pain/blood while going to the bathroom, took alot out of me. The only thing that got me through those nights was taking a shot of aloe vera juice, coated my stomach and stopped spasms right away!

When i was at 10mg of prednisone for the first time in my life (it seemed) I didnt have to wake up with any stomach aches and head to the bathroom, it was once a day, and I never felt a single thing in my stomach! Life was great.

It's gotta be normal if Family Guy is making satire out of it! www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw6eqmRVlDY

Post Edited (stereofidelic89) : 12/23/2011 9:54:49 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/23/2011 4:40 PM (GMT 0)
Im also a university athlete and have spring season coming up. Im a bit worried because practices start at 7 am every weekday. Last spring I missed a lot of it because I couldnt leave the bathroom or when I finally did Id have to keep running out of practice. When we did fitness it was so painful to do miles because of the stress it would put on my body and make my stomach cramp up. Not to mention how exhausted I would be before training even began because of the pain from the moment I wake up. Its like a truck hits me every morning. Any advice for an athlete?

Quincy, yes im on 20 mg of predinsone because im tapering off. Ive been on a rollercoaster of mg's since august. Everytime i get below 15 mg i start to flare up again and end up going back up and starting the whole process over again. I am doing corticosteroid enemas two or the times a week alternating with the suppositories. Im not sure how far the UC reaches because I have only done a sigmoidoscopy and didnt finish the procedure due to the pain. (a person shouldnt be awake for it in my opinion)
Posted 12/23/2011 5:39 PM (GMT 0)
Before I got sick with crohn's colitis, I usually didn't have my one poop a day (oh how I miss those days) until around noon, if I wasn't near a toilet by chance, then I could hold it until the urge hit again later in the day (yes, I really miss that part as well).

I have asked all 4 GI's that I've had in the 20 yrs of having IBD and they all said it's just the nature of the disease itself, not anything that a patient does to specifically make the mornings worse.

Healthy (non IBDers) start the mornings with a cup of coffee, IBDers start the day with a bunch of poops!
Posted 12/23/2011 5:44 PM (GMT 0)
Mine is worse in the morning as well. I'm up at 7:30 on the dot to poop! Like you, once I get it all out I'm fine for the rest of the day... so thank God for that. When I was flaring, though, I was going every 2 hours around the clock. I'll take this over that any day.

Like Q said, I think it just has to do with everything getting sent into motion for the day. Our bodies relax and repair at night and when we wake up we're sending jolts throughout our body to function again for the day.
Posted 1/6/2012 6:33 PM (GMT 0)
This sounds so much like what i'm going through right now.  I have my colonoscopy on Friday next week, but my mornings are horrible.  I get up like two hours before I have to be anywhere sometimes earlier than that.  cause I spend half my time going to the bathroom which makes it hard to get ready.  I would love to sleep in, but i can't.  I can't remember the last time I slept in until 7:00.  I get my coffee sit down and within minutes it all starts.  It can be frustrating some mornings.  I can remember some mornings going like six or seven times by the time I was ready to head out.  I've noticed that I've been drinking less coffee and I have maybe two cups, but if I'm not feeling well one morning sometimes I barely get through the first cup and i let it be.  I've even tried making my coffee a bit weaker thinking I was making the coffee to strong.  I have always had tummy troubles and I just keep going and going and going lately.  The mornings are definately hardest though sometimes it can hit me in the evenings too, but usually once I get it "out of my system" for the most part I'm ok the rest of the day maybe some gas and belching throughout the day.  Some days are just bad though.  Not sure what's really going on, but I've already been tested for Celiac Disease with lab work which was negative so now it's onto the colonoscopy.  My guess it's IBS, but who knows.  Although I've been anything but constipated these days.
Posted 1/6/2012 6:41 PM (GMT 0)
I'm surprised any of you can still drink coffee. Coffee may be what's keeping your UC active, it's powerful stuff in the bowels.
It was the first thing to go, even in healthy people, it gets things moving. I switched to tea when I was first diagnosed and have never looked back.
Posted 1/6/2012 7:00 PM (GMT 0)
I was about to warn about the coffee, but beatUC beat me to it. Caffeine stimulates the bowels - definitely not something UCers need.
Posted 1/6/2012 8:17 PM (GMT 0)
For some reason my gut prefers coffee (weak) instead of tea. I have tested every kind of tea there is including decaf green tea and there is something about it my gut does not approve of (hates herbals the most). I never drank coffee before UC, always tea.

I know that coffee is more inflammatory than tea and it makes no sense but just wanted say all guts aren't the same.
Posted 1/6/2012 8:24 PM (GMT 0)
I can't do coffee very often. I make it weak and it still sends me to the bathroom. Tea is hit or miss... Peppermint is fine, but green tea has a similar effect as coffee. I've pretty much just given up on drinking anything besides water and the occasional diluted juice (OJ, grape).
Posted 1/6/2012 8:30 PM (GMT 0)
green tea tastes like dirty socks to me, any weak black tea is OK and I have an emotional attachment to it.
After feeding me through a pic line for almost 40 days, the first thing they let me have was a cuppa black tea, it warms my soul :)
Posted 1/7/2012 1:09 AM (GMT 0)
I hate coffee...always have...in fact all three times I was pregnant the smell of coffee in the first trimester made me run to the bathroom. I drink tea...can't stand green tea...but if I drink more than one cup of black tea I feel woozy and want to throw up. Does nothing to my bowels though. I'm lucky.
Posted 1/9/2012 2:17 AM (GMT 0)
UC is worst in the morning for me too, unless I hit the treadmill the night before for 45 minutes to an hour; then there's a good chance I will make it to work without a bowel movement. I am very surprised that you are able to function as an athlete, I know from my experience that running track & field and cross-country, became impossible because my stamina was affected by UC.
Posted 1/9/2012 4:22 AM (GMT 0)
It definitely has made me miss a lot of practices and has effected my performance. When im in a flare up waking up for morning practice/weight room is really tough. I feel like all my energy is sucked out of me in the morning and feel like I cant bounce back from tough practices like I used to. I also feel like my coach doesnt understand sometimes and feel like people think im just being lazy or trying to get out of working hard but my energy is nowhere near the same. Prednisone helped me get through season but I really regret getting on it because the trouble Ive had coming off of it.
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