What does a flare look like?

Second question from me this week I have mild colitis throughout my entire colon and think I might be experiencing my first flare (post antibiotics for pneumonia).

Is the trajectory different for everyone? Sorry for the TMI but I noticed my BMs getting long/thin and then they stopped being formed and now are doing all kinds of weird stuff. No watery d, but not formed and urgency and frequency has increased.

Just wondering if there are telltale signs I could look for.

Thanks all!

Flares are a persistent and consistent worsening of our symptoms which can include one or more of the following: blood, urgency, looser bms, more frequent bms, and pain. When you're lucky, you start seeing symptoms regress slowly. Perhaps you're going an extra 1-2 more times and now see blood on your tissue when you wipe for 5-7 days in a row. Best you can do is be vigilant and look for signs of worsening symptoms and contact your gasteroenterologist to catch it early.

No two flares are exactly the same. Flares come in different sizes from fun-sized blips that we can tame quickly ourselves (like increasing Asacol from 2,400mgs to 4,800mgs), to moderate pains in the tush that take a number of months to beat with addition of stronger medications and/or prednisone, to complete hell incarnate (20+ bms a day, pain, housebound or hospitalized and near incontent). It really depends on how severe the inflammation is and how far it extends.

Best you can do is have an excellent maintenance treatment that puts you in a solid remission, as that's how you have the best odds of infrequent and mild flares. Ideally, you want your remissions long 2, 5 or more years. UC prognosis can be very unpredictable expecially during the first 5 years and need stronger medications over time. Sometimes it's a bumpy ride when we first startout with our UC, as we're not yet sure exactly what is necessary to control our symptoms or what our flare triggers are (for some of us).