Newly diagnosed - confused about what defines being in a flare or not

I'm really glad I found this forum; it seems to be the most active by far of the UC communities!

So, I was diagnosed two weeks ago. I am definitely rollercoastering emotionally, and there are lots of things I don't understand well yet, but one of the biggest questions is specifically how to define being in a flare. So far, I've spent two weeks on Lialda (4.8g/day, oral) and my symptoms are still very erratic (with no clear connection to diet). The main symptoms that come and go are the amount of white mucus (sometimes lots), the amount of blood in that mucus (usually minimal), the amount of pain when I'm actually having a bowel movement (usually mild to moderate, but occasionally severe), and the amount of random (when I'm not on the toilet) pain in my rectum and in the lowest part of my colon. No loose diarrhea for a couple weeks now.

Am I still "in a flare" as long as I keep having these symptoms? And will they probably keep being this erratic, or will I probably stabilize if the Lialda works for me? (Did you find you got more stable than this after spending, say, a few months on Lialda or another 5-ASA?)

I've only had a sigmoidoscopy so far, but we're guessing my inflammation is limited to the rectosigmoid region (partly because I've never felt any pain, tenderness or gas pains above that region). And I'm odd because even when I was badly flaring last month, I never had urgency or frequency -- I did have weeks of bloody and mucus-filled diarrhea, but never more than a few bathroom visits a day, and never a feeling of "Oh no, need a toilet right now."

My diet is simple and fairly consistent - vegetarian (as usual for me), limited dairy and fats, limited insoluble fiber, very limited beans/legumes/crucifers, no caffeine/alcohol, multivitamin and calcium, some live cultures every day.

It seems that everyone defines a "flare"a little differently. For me, when I'm in remission I feel pretty much normal. Regular once a day well formed poop with no pain. Some others really never get to that place and consider themselves in remission when they are well enough to function. As for you, time will tell. I hope you go into full remission where you feel pretty much normal. I am a little confused as to why your doctor doesn't do a full on colonoscopy. It's important to know how far up the inflammation actually goes so that you can decide the best course of treatment. If your colitis is limited to the rectosigmoid region, rectal meds or rectal + oral meds is probably going to help you feel better faster. The oral ASAs tend to treat a little higher up in the colon.

Thanks. I'm seeing the doctor again in two weeks, so I will present what's going on (I've been tracking about a dozen different symptoms daily on a 0-5 scale, so I'll have a little summary+charts to show him).

The pair of saline enemas I had to do for the sigmoidoscopy prep were extremely painful (because my rectum and anus were so inflamed), so maybe that's why he gave me an oral medication. More enema treatment sounds to me like it would be much worse than the intermittent gut pains I'm having.

The reason I haven't had a colonoscopy is because the sigmoidoscopy was much less expensive and I'm working on how to get health insurance. I will hopefully be getting the Lialda for free, but the doctor visits and diagnosis have been frighteningly expensive so far.