help!

After a year on mesalamine, for two days I've been having severe diarrhea, feel nauseous, shaky feeling. Lots of blood which I believe is probably from my hemorroids. Has anyone had these symptoms and if so, what to do. Am drinking lots of water but wondering if it's dehydration. Have heard of people having to go to hospital due to dehydration because of colitis.

It could be just a bug if you think the blood is from hemmies. But could be a flare. If you aren't better in a day or 2 call your doc to get stool tests to check for pathogens and inflammation.

How many times a day are you going to the bathroom? Important to drink a lot when you have diarrhea. I always drink a lot so never was dehydrated even in a severe flare going 20+ times/day.

What dosage of mesalamine are you taking and are you also using rectal meds? If this is a flare and you aren't on max dose or rectal meds that should be your first step to treat the flare. Check with your doc.

Also, I have been hearing that some of the Covid variants can cause diarrhea so if you have a Covid test at home you could check that.

Hope you feel better soon.

That sounds like you are on Apriso and that is the max dosage for that brand. There are different types of mesalamine and some people can do better on one brand than another.

Dr. Google can make us worry needlessly sometimes. Could be an upper GI bleed, but I am still leaning towards a bug ... or possibly a flare.

How long a flare lasts is highly variable from person to person. How a person treats a flare is also highly variable. Some manage their UC by increasing and decreasing their med dosages and using rectal meds. Others (like me) always had to escalate to stronger meds to control a flare and get back in remission. My last flare lasted about 2 years though most of that time it wasn't severe.

You might want to read lots of posts on this forum. I learned more about UC in this forum than any other source. So sorry you have to deal with this really sucky disease.