What do you consider a flare?

Hi there,

I am very new here... I am currently in the process of diagnosis. . I've had my colonoscopy rescheduled 2 times now due to the GI I was referred to is now on a on med. leave. Basically , I've been feeling pretty sick again and having a lot of pain. Some blood/ a lot of mucus but I think the blood could be hemmroids.

Basically just hoping to hear what symptoms some of you have that you consider yourself to be "flaring" .. like how bad does it get before you consider it to be a flare? What are your indicators?

** EDITED , I feel like my Original post had too much rambling and my actual question wasn't getting a cross .. I'm new to this haha

Post Edited (Tash Gillzy) : 3/27/2017 3:14:32 PM (GMT-6)

Hopefully this is IBS and not IBD.
Do yourself a favor and get off coffee, dairy and sugar for the meantime, until you'll get treatment and diagnosis.
Colitis flare is usually blood, D, mucus and urgency. Take care

That's a flare.

No urgency, and 1-3 BMs a day with no blood would be considered not a flare I'd say. Considering you have blood, tenesmus, accidents and urgency.....that's a flare. If you had a UC diagnosis. First you need to get that. CDiff can also cause bleeding which is why they suggested stool tests.

I agree with the others that it's a flare. Those sound very close to the symptoms I was having for months pre-diagnosis - and yes, I tried to blame hemorrhoids, too I wish.

It's hard to tell when my symptoms were truly UC and when/if they were IBS, which is what I was initially diagnosed with many years ago. However, last summer for certain, I had the following IBD symptoms:

- Cramping with bowel movements - that's been going on for a few years

- Starting about a year ago or more, I was slowly becoming unable to tolerate different foods that didn't used to bother me - and diet changes that should have helped IBS, didn't resolve my symptoms (e.g., Low FODMAP, gluten free, dairy free, etc.). Started finding that trigger foods were nuts, fats, coffee, alcohol, chocolate, certain veggies, certain fruits, dairy, fiber, etc. - basically the list of things that irritate many with UC when flaring

- Last summer, started passing mucus, and having urgency - first more subtle, then slowly became that I didn't want to leave the house in the morning for fear of being far from a bathroom. I wasn't particularly having diarrhea, just urgency with formed bowel movements

- Occasional bleeding when straining to have a bowel movement (on and off for a couple of years) became frequent bleeding with bowel movements last summer

- Tenesmus - the constant urge to go, accompanied by painful spasms when going, and passing only blood/mucus - this started in the fall, got much worse over the winter, and was the symptom that finally pushed me to go to the doctor last month. Diagnosed with UC in the sigmoid colon and rectum.

Hopefully you can get your colonoscopy moved up - that's VERY important to do if you can. You need medication and things will hopefully start to improve. Good luck!

Fletch10, Thank you. Although this is hard to hear, because those are my exact symptoms. I was diagnosed with IBS in 2011, but this past summer was the sickest I ever was. My symptoms then were :

- I had severe urgency, morning diahrea like 4-5 times within an hour (but it was formed)
- Alot of mucus, and what I thought might have been blood
- Very bad knee pain
- Left sided pain, burning sometimes sharp that runs from rectum to belly button level usually. Sometimes right sided pain. Comes in waves
- Tenesmus
- A few accidents this past summer, came out of nowhere. Like my whole GI tract just spasmd and released itself , that was terrifying for me.
- I don't digest nuts, beans, lettuce, mushrooms (see it in my stool).. pork bothers me, coffee is an instant laxative

But I've had normal blood work! And at the emerg last summer the CT didn't show any obstruction or obvious signs of IBD. They said I had some mild inflammation that they thought was due to chronic constipation (I guess I looked pretty backed up, although I definitely wasn't because my main issue at the time was accidents and D, chills, temp of 96). I was referred to a GI after than and he said the symptoms seem like UC or microscopic colitis , and they put me on the list for a colonoscopy.. but the wait was 6 months. Turns out, the GI I was referred to is on a medical leave (I found out when I called the hospital to see why I hadnt heard about my appointment, the receptionist was very rude and told me that all of the appointments that were before me will be the first people to get their procedures done, and that I likely wont hear about an appointment until this summer now)

I feel like I never really got 100% better since this summer, but definitely like 80-90% but the past week I've been pretty sick again, with almost all of the same symptoms aside from full blown accidents.. I don't want to waste my time going to emerg again if they're not going to do anything for me. . So I've been trying to gage whether or not this does sound like a UC flare or if I just have severe IBS and hemmies and I'm freaking myself out for nothing.



April68 , I'm sorry to hear you're not feeling well either I just took some tumeric capsules actually hoping to help my joint pain. Interesting that this came on when you stopped smoking, I wonder if thats common.

I am on intravenous Entyvio once a month after having tried all the available drugs used to treat colitis. I was diagnosed in September. 2014, went into remission, and has been in constant flare since Dec. 2015. I was allergic to Pentasa and Prednisone is only a quick fix with dangerous side effects and cannot be used long term. I quit milk and sugar and go easy on starches. Using rye bread without gluten although I am not celiac. I take a multitude of supplements, including turmeric, omega 3, vit. D 5000 iu per day, prebiotic, Aloe Vera in drinkable form, germinated barley foodstuff and Physillium which works immediately for diarrhea, although it is labeled a laxative. Used in cold water it bulks up the stools. Although improvements are happening, the frequency has not abated much. Rarely blood now and much less mucus. No pains.

I take it you are from Canada and have socialized medicine there? It's terrible you need to wait months before you can get tests you need to confirm whether it's UC or not or something else. With a UC flare, the sooner you can get on meds the better because any type of control
Or remission becomes more difficult the longer we wait. I waited five months before seeing my gastroenterologist last year thinking I could just heal myself using supplements and food but I was wrong and got so much worse. Once I got scoped and on Prednisone and then Lialda and Canasa it took
Another five months before all bleeding and urgency completely stopped.
While waiting to get to see a doctor, can you try some supplements and probiotics perhaps? Maybe some L-Glutamine, and a good probiotic and some Prednisone if you could get a script for some? I sympathize with what you are going through as I've been there and know the feeling.

A flare is a consistent and persistent worsening of your UC symptoms. It's not just a bad day, as we all have those. Flares come in funsizes (might be a multiple week blip we can solve on our own by temporarily increasing med doses), moderate sized ( take months, prednisone, and more maintenance meds), or flares from hell (take half a year or more, involve hospitilization, and an incredible struggle to beat).

You're doing well if you're having only 1-2 bms a day that are formed. Blood means either you have hemorrhoids or some simmering/lingering UC inflammation that needs to be addressed.

sorry, don't have specifics, but there have been many folks post here about certain foods causing bloody poops -

my feeling is that ya, there are probably things you are eating that are causing the problems - unless of course you are eating the exact same thing every day - often it's not just one meal that creates havoc, it's having the same things days in a row -

i'll tell you the truth tho, half the time this whole thing is just a mystery - the other half is just an effing pain in the ass !

Yeah, I figured. I just always thought a flare was pretty consistnatly bad. I think I'm just grasping at straws in denial. Thank you

If this cleared up on a low residue diet it could be diverticulitis.. I hope it not UC and the scope gives you answers.