Nature of remission

I'd call it a very mild flare. I'm in the same situation, nearly 100% but not quite. I'll have random things a couple times a week: see blood on tp, bm 3 times instead of my normal 2, etc. Every once in a while I'll have a series of bad days and do two rowasa for a day or two and then back to my normal. Is it a remission? Probably not, but its 90-ish percent there. Doctor says he can scope me and see what's going on, I told him that I know exactly what you'll see: mild and limited extent inflammation.

Great post... good question. I'm 3 Remicades in, but still on 30 mg Pred along with Mesalamine and I have solid-ish (like soft-serve ice cream? TMI, I know) but with bright red blood at times with clots and the like. It's like a flare + remission. What does remission really look like? I think it is this. Urgency and therefore accidents are less. # of BMs is less, but still may be quite a few vs. the normal person... i.e. not everyone goes 3-5 times a day. I would also believe that remission means that bleeding is gone or darn near gone. Everything else...loose stool, mucus, irrelevant I think, but after 1 year of this, standards are lowering...

4 years in, 2nd biologic, I've never been in full remission. And the day I got diagnosed with UC, "normal" was in the rear view mirror.

The constant barrage of biologic drug ads would have you believe otherwise. One talk with a concerned doctor about ( insert drug of choice) and the next thing you know, you're at the fair eating corn dogs without a care in the world.

But yes, a remission is an absence of all UC symptoms. For me a remission is one solid bm a day, free of blood, free of urgency, and free of pain/discomfort. It's bliss, you go about your day without giving a thought to bathrooms, etc. It's the best quality of life we can get, and is essentially pre-UC. It initially took me 2-years to achieve a remission, I was there in remission-ville for a couple years, and I've been dancing around the edge of remission for a couple years since with a very, very mild flare (looks like a remission for a few months, see blood again in very limited incidences, and perpetually oscillating between the two). What do you do when in that situation? Hit it light a freight-train with pred? Hope it heals over time? I dunno.

Thanks for the comments; will discuss with my BN.

Hiya

Last colonoscopy was May 2017. No sign of active inflammation then.

You wrote "...have never been 100% pre-UC normal ever since [you] got UC..."

So that sounds like where I am now. What you suggest is a low level flare?

What symptoms do you have [or not] when you are in remission [as such]?

Cheers!

LL

Hiya

1.5g salofalk granules normally.

Currently 2 x 1.5g granules + 1.5g salofalk suppository

3 x BM per day, very very loose/watery

Mild tenesmus intermittent

Intermittent bloody mucus

Usually mucus

But thousand times better than a flare

This is as good as it gets!
But I will give the specialist nurse a call.

Cheers!

Luckyluke1968 said...
Hiya

Last colonoscopy was May 2017. No sign of active inflammation then.

You wrote "...have never been 100% pre-UC normal ever since [you] got UC..."

So that sounds like where I am now. What you suggest is a low level flare?

What symptoms do you have [or not] when you are in remission [as such]?

Cheers!

LL

Well, my BMS are softer, and I go more regularly that before I got UC. I almost always have to go first thing when I wake up, and that wasn't the case pre-UC. I guess I associate a lot of that to the meds I'm on. Also, sometimes the stools are narrower than pre-UC. But I don't get tenesmus unless flaring. Or blood, mucous, more than 3 BMs a day, or pain. I feel slightly more urgency sometimes than pre-UC, but it is far, far worse in a flare. I used to get constipated more often before UC, but that was likely due to poor diet most the time. It's really up to you though if you want to try other meds or if these symptoms are minimal enough to you that you are okay living with them.