How long did it take you to get a diagnosis?

I mentioned to my GP that I had been having D for 6 months. She had me do a stool sample and said if this comes back normal, you're going to see a GI. Samples were normal so I made an appt. with a GI. I explained to him that back in 2000 I had D that was nothing but blood, was anemic and lost weight. Then one day those symptoms went away I and I was fine up until Jun 07. He couldn't believe I never had a colonoscopy (I didn't have insurance during first flare). He scheduled one for 3 weeks later. Woke up from the procedure in a great mood until my GI said, "your colon is very angry".

about 3 weeks.

I was 25 and in graduate school in Texas, noticed blood in the toilet for about a week and got pretty freaked out. My first medical visit about it was with the university student health service. A very young doctor did a quick rectal exam, asked a lot of questions that I could tell made her uncomfortable (all more or less trying to determine if I'd had any trauma to the area in question: did i ride a motorcycle, horse? had i inserted anything unusual?...). Her limited exposure to GI issues became even more clear (in retrospect) when next she pulled out a poster illustrating the intestinal tract and described colon cancer in detail to me, never mentioning any other less threatening possible diagnoses. She made a referral for me to see a gastroenterologist at his private practice, then hugged me as I left and said "Good luck." Needless to say, I left convinced I had colon cancer, went immediately to the library and looked it up in the Merck manual and got even more freaked out knowing I had to wait a week to see the GI guy. One office visit with him and I was scheduled for a colonoscopy a week from then, and that resulted in a diagnosis of ulcerative proctitis (now 20 years later more advanced UC).

Hi Boardies!

Wow, our experiences are so different!

My UC first became evident when I was about 4 months pregnant with twins. Endless trips to offload the dreaded "pink mucus" which was my first clue. My OB said not to worry, that it was normal. 5 months later the normal became much worse. Besides being head to toe at term I had a rear that was so sore I couldn't have faced a regular delivery. C section for me but beautiful healthy babies!

At that time the whole family had a GP so I scheduled a six week check up for them AND for me because I was dragging and losing weight so fast.

My first colonoscopy was a few weeks later and was done in the GP's office with NO sedation. He noted "inflamation" and put me on an anti-depressant. Jeezo-Peets.

I put up with that nonsense for about 6 months being all swimmy and still sick with UC and dead tired with twins.

Finally referred to a GI who got it right the first time in his office by looking with a sigmoidoscope. Once on the correct medication I got better within about 6 weeks.

I've had longish periods of time in remission but it always comes back.

Rot Gut

My mom has UC, so she was able to tell me right away what it was. Since I told the doctor that, he immediately did the colonoscopy and formally diagnosed me within a few days.