Posted 6/21/2018 1:19 PM (GMT 0)
Your doctor wants to know are you seeing:
1.) Obvious bright red blood on your toilet paper when using toilet paper.
2.) Obvious bright red blood on the surface of the toilet water.
3.) Obvious bright red blood on the stool you pass.
How much of it are you seeing means:
1.) Just a drop or two
2.) Everything is obviously bloody.
I do not think anybody needs a measuring cup, or anything too crazy here to answer that question. Blood is a good sign of disease activity. If you're seeing a few small, limited hints of blood then you likely have mild disease activity (or a hemorrhoid) from your UC, and your doctor will treat mild activity with a mild intervention. If the toilet water is bright red, and there is a lot of blood seen then you likely have moderate to severe inflammation and that would warrant a much more aggressive treatment to your flare. It's a good means of seeing how bad it is and what should be done to respond to it appropriately.
During flares we seldom pass more than 2-tablespoons of blood within a 24-hour period, and that is nothing dangerous by any means. Always looks like a lot more then it actually is, due to the mixing with water and diarrhea.