Is this still a flare?

Hello all:

I'll do a brief history since I don't post too often (not that I don't want to but I've only been on 2 meds and have had UC less than a year so I don't feel I have much to add).

I have no blood, no mucus, no urgency.  I have this 'every 3rd day' problem where my colon feels the need to totally empty itself, so I'll go 6-7 times and feel pretty yucky for about 3 hours then it's over.  I do have some urgency during this time but it's not like the urgency before I was dx and started meds (if that makes sense).  Now...sometimes this problem will occur once a week, then it'll go back to every 3 days, then stretch back out, you get the picture.  On the days this does not happen...I feel totally normal, I have a BM in the morning and that's it.  Sometimes maybe a little gas or a little twinge of left sided pain but nothing to slow me down.

I've tried stopping the Metamucil, then trying it again, it seems to make no difference one way or the other.

So....what is this?  Am I in remission and the 'every 3rd day' thing is just how it is?  Should I go ahead and keep tapering the Rowasa? 

I'm confused.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Hi fruitgirl,

I've been keeping track of the enema vs. bad day thing and it doesn't seem to have any relation, especially since sometimes I won't have one of these days for a week, but then sometimes it's every 3 days (it's never been more often than 3 days).  Or it could be anywhere in between, 5 or 6 days...the longest has been 8 days.  There doesn't seem to be a pattern, which is confusing.

What is more confusing to me is that is was not one of my original symptoms, this has just started in the past couple months!  Now that my other symptoms are gone...this starts!  What the heck???

Oh, and I did the food journal too for 2 weeks...I didn't see anything

You are having what was happening to me before I went into this major flare. My UC was originally under control with just Mesalamine enemas every night. Then I sometimes needed a Canasa in the morning for a few days to squish a minor flare up. Those times between the mini-flare ups needing Canasa started to come a lot more frequently in the fall and then in December is when my major flare up started. So, I am concerned that you are just not *quite* controlling inflammation and things could snowball. I think you should try to get in to your GI or call him or something to maybe bump up the meds a little to squish this down. After my experience I realize that if I had understood things were spreading and not under control I MAY have been able to get control before this flare spiraled out of control. This major flare has eaten the last 3 months of my life! So, my advice is jump on it!

Hey there. I asked a similar question the other day. I too am i what I would term remission....sort of. For the past 11 months I have experienced loose stools, 1 or 2 per day in the morning as well as mucus sometimes and gas /bloating in the afternoon sometimes. But no blood, no urgency no increase in symptoms. I have been diagnosed with UC for over 10 years and have focused so much energy on my flares that unfortunately have not kept great track of my mild/remission type symptoms over that time as I would just be happy not having copious amounts of blood in my stool, pain and great urgency. What I will say that I never really achieve "perfect poos" during remission since I was first diagnosed.

So finally I decided to see if this type of remission was common to other suffers and aside from asking on this form I did a little internet looking. I found that it is fairly common for people with UC to experience IBS type symptoms during clinical remission from UC and that some researchers believe that these diseases are opposites on the same spectrum. It seems that there are some clinical signs of low grade inflammation found in the colons of IBS sufferers.

So I'm not sure really where this leaves me with regards to how to medicate. What I have been doing is pretty much maintaining at the same level and taking an extra few asacol if things seem to be getting a bit more intense for a few days. I figure I will keep doing this until my symptoms do take a definate turn for the worse (which they will at some point). Its just a drag to be on the edge of my seat everyday waiting to see what will happen next. Although it seems that even if you are one of those who can achieve the "perfect poo" during remission you are atill always waiting for the change to come. Thats life with UC I guess.

Anyhow, hard for me to say but maybe you are one of those like me who achieves a kind of remission with IBS type symptoms. Like I say, so far I am going on 11 months with no flare which is good for me so it does seem to be possible to maintain this type pf remission.

jo