How Do I know if im fully healed?

Hi, so I was diagnosed with pancolitis in September last year and after taking the first dose of 60mg of prednisone it was like i was magically healed and poos was normal. The only time i got a bit of a sore tummy and little blood was when I tapped down too fast. 5mg every 5 days. But now on 10mg and every thing is fine.

I was wondering how long before my whole colon is fully healed like new again? (as I cant view it from the outside.)
And if I was going to get it back again would I get tiny blood slowly coming or would I get like I first saw i had a problem when all of a sudden massive pain in the night and full on diarrhea/constipation at once?(it didn't creep up on me it all of a sudden hit me) That went after a day and happened every 2-3 weeks. but only lasted a day or 2 at a time. (like irritable bowel symptoms)

I feel for some reason that my pancolitis was caused singly by stress. The time I got pancolitis It was the most stressing time in my life. I had never had stress where my teeth hurt and ached. I'm like 90% that my pancolitis was caused by stress alone.(and of course the genes needed for the stress to allow for it)

Its kinda of weird that after having the colonoscopy and knowing in my head I was taking medication that was gonna help me that ALL of a sudden I've had no symptoms what so ever for months after I was diagnosed because I simply stopped stressing. The doctor was very suprised that I had 0 direhea after the colonscopy. And also thought I might need to be admitted to hospital.


Its also weird that I Never get/got the urgency that I hear people talking about. The only time I ever got urgency was when my poos wasn't forming. ie diarrhea. But that was only for 24-48 hours at a time. And wasn't like 20 times a day was 3-5 times at the most.

Do you think that I have self inflicted this on my self via stress? Because to me I feel stress did it. Stress to the point where my teeth where aching all day.
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Sorry for so many questions. I Shall number my questions and you may answer them according.

1:If I was going to get it back again would I get tiny blood slowly coming or would I get like I first saw i had a problem when all of a sudden massive pain in the night and full on diarrhea/constipation at once?

2:Do you think stress alone has caused me pancolitis? Is this possible.

3:If I were to get it back again would I get pancolitis straight away or would It develop into it? Ie first effect lower end colon then half colon then full colon? etc.

Thanks.

Post Edited (Rick123123) : 2/18/2013 5:32:06 AM (GMT-7)

I think you are trying to rationalize and figure something out that even doctors are unable to do.
Most of the time our bodies are just going to do what they are going to do, stress-related or not.

If you were working on a computer you may be able to forecast - if I did this then this may happen, or if I did this then will this happen? - but our bodies and minds are much more complicated and involve feelings.

When I hear the word "stress" I think of it as what our mind is telling us, but it is usually lying to us anyway. But because most people are such suckers for what our minds are telling us, they begin to believe it, and then in turn the body responds, and once the body responds the mind says "ah hah! I knew it was true." So even though the body has responded either in the form of tension, or even getting ill, we connect the action to the symptom, thus solidifying that "stress did it." When it really didn't - our thought processes and beliefs did it.

Sorry to go off on this subject, but I really love how our minds, bodies, and spirits are always doing this very intricate dance. Personally it helps me to FIRST take a good look at my body and senses and determine where I am BEFORE taking a look at what my mind is telling me, because as I stated earlier, the mind is usually wrong - so I try to take what I am thinking with a grain of salt.

John

Stress is a common factor. What other meds are you on? Prednisone is not a cure so you have to do something else to remain in remission once the pred is tapered further and off. UC is an autoimmune disease where your body's immune system starts attacking your colon or something in your colon, causing inflammation and UC. Prednisone weakens or stops your immune system from doing this, allowing your colon time to heal. It can get to the point where your colon is completely healed BUT the prednisone does not fix your autoimmune condition. Once you taper to a lower dose or get completely off your immune system will go right back on the attack again and you will eventually be back to square one all over again. The amount of time for that to happen depends on how well your colon was healed in the first place. You are making a mistake if you think your colon heals, you get off of the pred, and you are cured. This is why you need to have a maintanence therapy in place such as Asacol or some other method. If you don't it is pretty much a guarantee you will eventually return to where you started or worse.

It is my humble opinion from watching so many people post here who had gotten better, went off all meds, and return in worse shape than they were before. There is no cure for UC. It is a disease where your immune system attacks your colon or something in your colon, causing inflammation. Some meds, such as asacol and 6mp can put you into remission as long as you continue taking them but if you ever stop, ever, your immune system goes right back on the attack and you are back to square one. The better your colon has healed, the longer it will be before you begin flaring again but you will begin flaring again and often future flares get harder and harder to treat. You must continue with a maintanence plan for the rest of your life. If you quit after two years of remission it would be a huge mistake.

It would probably be wise to take you off the 6mp after two years in remission and then continue with the asacol forever. You had mentioned that he had mentioned getting you off of both and that would be a mistake unless you were doing something else to maintain remission.

I think UC has no cure except removal of colon.
Remission != Cure.
There used to be that UC has increased chance of colon cancer, but nowadays generally speaking as long as you maintain remission, the increased cancer is just slightly more than normal individuals, but of course this factor is so dependant on individual.
Because characteristics of UC is that skin of the colon gets always inflamed, more inflammation (flare) and severer the inflamation and the affected area (more Pancolitis and more often the flare higher risk of cancer) Or if the person has had UC for longer, from 8 to 10 yrs or more, the greater likelyhood of Cancer cell will be formed. I also found out that people with UC, after a flare, there would be scaring, polyps that forms after inflammaion, which differs from the average polyps. I saw mine after severe flare that almost required me to get the operation via colonoscopy, and if the doctor does not have keen eye, its easily be mistaken, if no biopsy is taken.

I am also worried about cancer myself especially after seeing the scarying and inflammation polyps. I read quite a bit and did some research. I know some people and I read some people's blog, I know people with UC in fact develop cancer because of constantly inflamed and ulcerated area in the colon. When you develop cancer cell, you have no choice but to get colorectomy. If you get cancer, colorectomy is not a cure, where at the UC stage it would be the cure (chemo and other stuff have to follow and now that is hard and life threatening...) I also know people who did not get colon removed because they are afraid of surgery, developed cancer (and one she was young too...).

As much as I dont want to loose a part of organ, sometimes I have no choice. I dont want to get cancer, because my case was so severe, and I need to move on from this disease, I am seeing a sergent next week.

Only reason I am now in remission is because of immuno-suppressant Tacrolimus, which I dont want to take till rest of my life.

Unfortunately a cure from this disease is the removal of colon itself, but I think its still good compared to a cancer itself.