Newly diagnosed, but with very little symptoms

Hello! I just signed up on here. I've read through quite a few of the topics, as I've just been diagnosed with PC and UC on Friday (3/15). I've just been Googling a bunch of stuff, and most of my Google searches brought me here. It seems as though no two people are alike when it comes to this disease! It also seems like most people have it way worse than I do (at least so far, and hoping it stays that way). I am 35, and have always been super healthy my whole life. I've never had the flu, and have only had a handful of colds in my entire adult life. I haven't had a stomach bug since I was about 12. The only health issue that I've dealt with recently is lower back pain, and that hasn't even really been an issue for over a year. And now this, ***!?

So anyway, out of nowhere this past January, I started having UC symptoms gradually. This happened immediately after I moved, which was pretty stressful for me. I was also stressed out about a guy. So, I had more stress than usual at the time. Compared to what I've read on here, my symptoms were hardly anything! Basically I just had diarrhea every day, several times a day, for about a week and a half. I wasn't in any pain except for the usual stomach cramps that you get right before you go. I called in sick 2 days because there were a couple of days where I was going to the bathroom every 20-30 minutes all day long. The other days I was able to hold it during the day while I was at work. I took some expired Pepto Bismol, and it didn't seem to help at all. After a few days I noticed some blood on the toilet paper. Once I saw the blood, I made an appointment with a GI. My appointment wasn't for a week after I called (1/30), and so by the time I went to the GI I wasn't having diarrhea all day every day anymore, maybe just once a day at this point, but there was still blood and mucous in it. So he ordered a blood test and stool tests, and also recommended that I take Align. Everything came back negative (2nd appointment was 2/18), except my blood test showed inflammation. So we scheduled a sigmoidoscopy (for 3/15). I started taking Align every morning after my January 30th appointment, eating Activia yogurt every morning, and also drinking water with lemon, cucumber and mint leaves (I read that this "detox water" was great for digestion). I also started drinking aloe juice. The diarrhea stopped. Then, I got a cold! I hardly ever get colds, but every person in my office had it so I guess I couldn't escape the germs, especially since my system was weakened. At the end of the cold, I had a nasty cough and a fever for a few days so I was put on an antibiotic for 10 days. While taking the antibiotic, one day I had diarrhea once, and I took Imodium. No more diarrhea after that. Once I was done with the antibiotic, I felt GREAT! Cough was gone, fever gone, cold gone ... AND my bowel movements were back to normal ... except I would still see some blood and mucous in my stool like every other day. I continued taking Align, Activia and drinking the detox water and aloe juice every single day. I also have always taken multivitamins and other supplements (OPC-3, Fish Oil, Folic Acid, Vitamin D) so I didn't change any of that.

I had the sigmoidoscopy with biopsy done on Friday. The doc saw that my rectum and colon were inflamed, and he prescribed Lialda (2 pills a day) and Canasa (one suppository at bed time per day). He said he wants to do a colonoscopy to see how far up the inflammation goes. The nurses were all acting like I should be in so much pain and discomfort, but I'm not in any pain at all. I started taking the medicine immediately, and I've still had normal bowel movements but the past couple days I have not seen any blood or mucous.

I've been looking up the best supplements to take for this disease, and there are a LOT of different ones out there but the ones that seem to be mentioned the most are Glutamine, Calcium, Turmeric, Slippery Elm, Fish Oil, and Folic Acid. I've also seen Vitamin K2 and D mentioned a few times. It's all so overwhelming! I keep reading conflicting information on what to eat, what not to eat, and what supplements to take. Some say stay away from dairy, but then I read you only need to stay away from dairy if you are lactose intolerant. I am not. I've never had a problem digesting dairy, and I've probably eaten more cheese in the past few weeks than I was during the "flare up" and I've been fine.

Wow sorry this is so long! Is there anyone similar to me out there?

Post Edited (krissyde) : 3/18/2013 5:33:18 PM (GMT-6)

What Gary said, and you are right everyone is different. Like Turmeric made lose tons of weight and did absolutely nothing for my symptoms last year when i was sick as a dog. Fish oil gave me D and cramping, and i tried many brands. Mesalamine enemas made me bleed alot more and gave me haemorrhoids. Having said all that, some people here swear by these supplements and say they have put them in remission. I had to try alternative hippy stuff (see my sig).
Point is: everyone with UC is unique, we think it's more of a blanket diagnosis -kinda like the end result of many potential causes. Each person has a different cause. Except that GIs can't tell you the cause; they only take biopies and see the UC. Then they give you anti-inflammatories since all cases of uc have inflammation.
So listen to your body and don't be pushed into continuing to use things if they don't work for you. Try one thing at a time and see how your body responds.

It's unusual for UC not to have any pain, but it is possible depending on the extent and location of the inflammation. i believe a member here, 'Somedude' who has pancolitis, does not experience any pain except for some minor cramping right before a bm just like you described. Just consider yourself lucky :)

That's an excellent question. I think everyone would define the words flare and remission differently. How many BM's per day are you currently having? Any blood? Any diarrhea? Any urgency? If you have inflammation then there is something defintely wrong with you. Some doctors say you are in remission if there is no inflammation, even though you are having symptoms. My personal opinion on that is that that is stupid. If you are having symptoms then you're flaring, whether you have inflammation or not. My doctor tried something like that with me. He believes my UC is currently in remission with no inflammation in my colon (although that has not been confirmed) so now he's calling it IBS, which I think is a total crock and a scapegoat diagnosis because he really has no explanation for my current symptoms. I realize this is different than you but a lot of times there really seems to be no concensus on this stuff. I think doctors make up a lot of crap as they go along. They have no causes for UC, have no cures for UC, so it seems like many times they just say something that seems to make sense even though there is often no medical sceince behind it.

Hi krissy,

I think my experience is pretty similar to yours.

I have always been super healthy, and then one day in January or February when I was 37, I saw blood in my stool.  No other symptoms.  Felt totally fine.  This went on for a couple of months while I convinced myself I must have some sort of bizarre internal hemorrhoid (which I had never had before, but I convinced myself by lots of on-line searching that it couldn't possibly be UC/IBD because I had no other symptoms).  Finally dragged my super-healthy self to a GI, did a sigmoidoscopy, and found inflammation in the rectum. 

... time passes ....

I'm now 40 and super healthy (except that I'm paranoid to look in the toilet and see blood again).  I went to 2 GI docs, decided I would rather just be a little 1-person experiment, and am trying to figure out what works for me and what doesn't.  My most trusted medical advice at the moment comes from a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, whom I have been seeing for almost 2 years now.  My symptoms have stayed (mercifully!!) mild, and I have kept very close tabs on what I eat.  I seemed to be fine with dairy, though a blood test several months ago showed me to be reactive to it, so if it causes any sort of inflammation response, I try to avoid it entirely.  Boo-hoo, I do miss cheese and yogurt, but worth it if it might cause problems.  I also avoid gluten because I have a known gluten sensitivity already.  Long story short, that's me, and yes, everyone seems to be totally different, except we are all here because we have UC.  Ugh.