Important Presentation.. what are your tricks?

I've been struggling with a flare + possible hemorrhoids as well and have really been having a lot of urgency and frequency lately. I have a really important presentation coming up in 2 weeks that I am going to be presenting for 2 hours in front of a few hundred people. I am terrified that I am going to have to excuse myself to go to the bathroom at some point..maybe more than once.. which would be incredibly unprofessional... and embarrassing...
My colitis is very much localized to the distal end of my colon/rectum. Hence the urgency and such. I am obviously going to work hard on getting this in control in the next two weeks..and have a Remicade infusion tomorrow, am on prednisone taper, as well as apriso and rowasa enemas.

What I am looking for are any tricks/advice on what people do for important days like this. Even if it's not something good to do more than once... I am desperate! Should I not eat for a day prior to my presentation? Should I take a large dose of immodium? pepto? Should I wake up at 4AM and try to get it all out before my 8 AM presentation? help me out please! =/

If it’s not something you can get out of, I’d go back to whatever dose of pred makes 2 hours without suffering possible.

My doctor prescribed Donnatal for short term use. I use it during bad flares at night, and if I HAVE to go someplace during a flare. In the past, I've used Immodium as directed on the box...just for the 'I HAVE to go someplace' days. Try not to stress TOO much about it...SO easy to SAY. Best of luck to you!

It's possible you could be healed and recovering from your flare within a couple weeks, try and stay positive.

Certainly wakeup extra early to empty out. Skip breakfast and skip caffeine both of which might stimulate urgency. You might choose not to eat super the night before as input does affect output. Imodium an hour before helps slow down your bowels but doesn't entirely stop the need to poop, just buys you more time.

Anxiety you want to stop before it gets roots. Wearing a pad could help. Not sure the subject of your presentation or rules, but could you be allowed to have a helper/assistant up there with you? Someone who could fill in if you had to go poop (have them ready with a short talk to cover you). Both of those things will help limit your anxiety.

You could take a higher dose of pred.

Opiod pain relievers can plug anyone up awfully. Not going down that road though!

Been there done that, I feel your pain. Client meetings and group presentations were the worst for me when my flare was at its peak. If I read right, you have 2 weeks before the presentations? That is great, it gives you time to experiment.

-Try Immodium and see what the results are. I typically take them when I have a 6 hour drive for vacation and they work well. For others, it gives a very bad constipation feeling which presents its own problems. Take it a day and see what happens. If that can keep everything at bay for a few hours, your problem is solved.

for the day or two before the presentation:
-absolutely no coffee/tea/alcohol or other beverages that will make you go.
-Try to eat easy to digest/bland foods, nothing spicy, greasy, or anything that normally makes your stomach upset.

for the day of the presentation
-wake up earlier than usual and try to empty your bowels. i think this helps both from a physical and mental side. Some days, I wouldnt go in the morning when I had a meeting or something in the afternoon. This freaked me out as I thought I had to be due for a bad BM during the afternoon.
-eat very sparingly if at all, same rules apply as the day before rules
-as hard as it is, try not to think about it. keeping yourself calm is really important. if you allow it to cloud your head all day, you will just freak yourself out and that wont help. try to be as ready as possible for the presentation so you arent freaking out about that either.

def feel your pain, use this time to experiment. good luck!

Thanks all for the suggestions. I’m definitely going to be using some of these. Forgot to mention my presentation is also on the east coast (and I am from the west) so I’ll be 2 hours ahead timewise already. Probably won’t be able to train my body to wake up earlier at all considering that already is several hours earlier than normal! Yuck.
I tried Imodium this week and it seemed to keep things at bay for a few hours. I’m surprised I’ve never tried that before. I think I’ll probably just try to eat really light the day before and skip breakfast that morning. I’ll survive a couple hours without eating if it means less chance of having to go.

As for getting out of it- no way! I’m not letting my colitis get in the way of a successful career. Being asked to speak at a national conference is huge- and while anxiety producing and flare-causing, I will not let my colitis scare me off from this huge career move.

Thanks to all for the help. This forum is such a great resource. I personally only know one other person who has colitis. It’s nice to pick the brains of others out there. Thank you internet.

You got great suggestions here. Just wanted to say I know how you feel. I have meetings and present all the time and everyone I work with now knows my issues. I’ve had to excuse myself so many times, but somehow on the biggest presentations it’s like my body gives me a break for a couple hours. I do the whole wake up early drink lots of water first thing. I take pepto and a levsin. I also don’t want to let it interfere with my career, I’m sorry you are going thru it too. I have also used lomotil but only sparingly. It works well.

Thanks to everyone who responded to this post. I am happy to report I made it through a 2 hours presentation AND an hour of questions afterwards without pooping my pants =p

For those wondering, here are the strategies I used:

Remicade injection (moved up to every 6 weeks as every 8 was obviously not keeping me in remission)
Prednisone taper (and took 30mgs at 6AM this morning just to help today)
Immodium A-D, tried a few times over the last few weeks and it seemed to work. Took 2 pills this morning at 6AM
2 weeks of Rowasa Enemas (most) nights
1 month of watching what I eat/drink
Daily probiotic juice or keifer water (including a big glass at 6AM this morning
Ate very light yesterday- some soup, boiled chicken, etc. No food this morning.
Woke up at 6AM (two hours before presentation) and did some yoga, breathing exercises, and tried to walk around. Luckily was able to have a BM before leaving the house.

350+ people in a standing-room only crowd, and I managed to keep my cool and NOT let my colitis get the best of me. Career goals crushed. UC put in its place =)

THanks to all who gave advice!

Congrats!

If you find yourself struggling as you get down to a low dose on the prednisone, you might ask your doctor about switching to hydrocortisone enemas for a stint (usually 21 days). I'd been using Rowasa/Canasa and my doc recently switched me to hydrocortisone for a month or so while we work out some insurance issues and I have to say they are really helping. I'll go back to Rowasa/Canasa after I finish the hydrocortisone enemas.

Awesome, so glad everything worked out!