Sorry for the long post, but I'm new to this board and hope you can give me some suggestions. I was diagnosed with mild UC in May '06 in the sigmoid area (so I guess it's technically either proctitis or left-sided colitis). My initial symptoms were gas, bloating, constipation, and blood.
Azulfidine worked for about a year but then my stools started to loosen. At that point, I started the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), which resulted in some immediate changes and improvements to my loose stools. By the end of one year on strict SCD, I was completely off meds (July '08) and symptom free. I had outpatient surgery for carpal tunnel on 3/12/09. about 2 weeks later, I started seeing blood in my stools, and then mucus, too. I had no other symptoms (no pain, gas, loose stools, anything). The blood is a small amount and very bright, so I assume the lesion is in or near the rectum.
I modified my diet back to the introductory foods, tried eliminating the allowed diary items (cheese and yogurt) and after 2 weeks of no change, I started taking azulfidine 2x/day. After a week of no change, I increased the meds to 3x/day. about 4 days ago, the blood nearly disappeared. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and he agreed that I should just stay the course with the azulfidine since it seemed like I was improving. Then today, there was more blood.
I am going on vacation next Thursday and am stressed about this flare (which doesn't help, I know). I'm wondering if I should call my GI back and talk to him about some rectal meds. I don't know anything about them, but wonder if others have had experience with them helping to stop the bleeding better than oral meds.
Kathy
UC since 12/05
SCD since 7/07
med-free and symptom-free from 7/08-3/09
currently in a flare