Painful cramping

I am brand new to the forum but I have been lurking for a couple of months.  I've was diagnosed with UC Proctitis in January of 2008.  I've learned a lot about this condition in the past couple of months from reading this board.  Thank you to everyone for sharing. 

A little background:  My symptoms began with just bleeding for a couple of months.  Then bleeding and mucus for a couple more months followed by a terrible flare up that kept me toilet bound for about 5 days straight during which I lost a tremendous amount of blood.  After that I finally made a Dr's appointment. Most of the time my symptoms consist of blood and mucus with little to no D.  My stools are usually formed but soft. For several months, I would typically go to the bathroom 5 to 10 times each day to expel blood and mucus.  During this time I took only Canasa.  Last month, I had another flare up, going to the bathroom 15-20 per day (and night) again almost all blood.  I took cort enemas for 2 weeks, plus 2 Lialda per day and 1 Canasa in the am.  For the past few weeks my symptoms have been very mild. 

Occasionally I get very severe stomach cramps that seem to come out of the blue.  The cramps are so intense that I double over in pain and I am unable to sit up. They hurt almost as bad as labor pains.   These episodes of cramping usually last several days.  The cramps are sometimes accopmanied by D, but many times they are not.  My question is, what causes these intense cramps?  Unfortunatley we only have one GI in our town and so for he has not been very helpful.  He game me Hyoscyamine for the pain but then told me I should probably see my OB/GYN which really ticked me off.  Does anyonese else have trouble with cramping?

I guess the reason I am curious about the cramping is that my GI seems to think it's unrelated because I have UC proctitus with very little D.  I have these painful episodes every couple of weeks.  I spent yesterday afternoon laying in the floor in my office, curled up in a ball.  I was hurting too bad to drive myself home. I haven't been able to find a pattern between the cramps and my diet yet.  The cramps are right in the middle of my belly, right behind my belly button, in an area about the size of my hand.

I see people mentioning pain they experience, I'm just curious if my pain is the same type, and normal.  Or could there be something else going on?

i have had that same pain.
it was from my flare.
i used to cry and still do when its that bad.
i even vomit when im on the toilet due to the pain being so excrutiating.

i cant say if it is from anything else in your case, but with mine it was all from the UC.
and the pain was in the same exact spot as well as all over the place.
right side, left side, rectum area, above colon, behind colon... you name it, it hurt.