Colazal wearing off? or just flaring? help!

For the past few weeks I have been having a lot of gas throughout the day.  I don't fart like I used to - in actual discrete farts, since I've had UC it's more like my intestines "percolate."  I usually can't even tell for sure if I am farting except that my insides are gurgling and then it stops.  This can keep up for hours. 

My bowel movements have been fairly normal, but I have had a couple painful ones, where it hurt lower down the track quite a bit while I went. 

But the other difficult thing has been that I have finally figured out that I seem to be having some kind of anal leakage.  I don't know if it's mucous or what.  I have even seen some on my underwear, to my horror, so I know that something is going on, and of course it doesn't smell great.  This is psychologically difficult for me.  It seems like this is worse in the morning, and can happen even if I don't use the bathroom previously.

The last time I had frequent symptoms like this (farting, leakage) was when I was put on the generic colazal for about 1 year.  When I switched back, things got better.  I've been on the UC meds for probably 4 years, with like year 2 being the generic colazal. 

At my last GI visit, I mentioned how I had been doing slightly worse, though for some reason I guess I hadn't been having much of a problem with leakage so I didn't bring it up.  Anyway, my GI gave me some Lialda samples that I could try, and some probiotic samples called "Align."

I need to call him back and explain what's going on, figure out my dose for the Lialda and how many weeks worth of samples I have. 

Through my time with UC I have noticed swings, days or weeks where I don't feel as good and then it can get better in a hurry.  I am wondering if this is just a bump in the road, or if my Colazal is wearing off.  I wanted to ask you guys to get your experience so I can avoid needless and unnecessary difficulties if I need to switch meds.  I am going to the drugstore today and going to find some anti-gas medication like simethicone or something.  I remember when I was initially in the hospital I had been taking anti-gas meds and they seemed to work.  I wonder if that can help the leakage issue, because they do tend to occur simultaneously.

And if my Colazal was wearing off, do you think Lialda might work?  I don't quite understand the UC meds.

If I feel like I'm freaking "percolating" I will call in sick to work on Monday and call my GI.  Somedays I just run a little low on courage and patience and need to throw in the towel for a day or two.

Thank you

     I've been on the generic Colazal (Balsalazide) for years.  When in remission, I take six a day but when flaring I increase it to nine.  Lialda works more like Asacol, treats the upper portion of the colon.  Since my condition is proctitis the Colazal has better effect.  Have you tried any rectal meds?

Red: I don't really think it's the foods, because I tend to stick with the same foods yet the condition of my intestines varies.

Christine: When I was on balsalazide for 1 year it was pretty evident that it was "weaker" than the brand name for me, I was constantly gurgly, farting, and had leakage. This wasn't the case when I had been on brand name Colazal, and once I got switched back to the brand name it went away. Until now. Haven't tried any rectal meds nor has my GI ever mentioned them. When I feel irritation or burning it's usually near the anus, particularly during bowel movements.

Old Hat: Saw the gastro not long ago, but it's only a chit-chat office visit as always. I kind of doubt it's a flare - the only "pain" I had was during pretty much one bowel movement (the one that I wrote a separate message about - large volume of "mud" like poop). It was actually pretty intense cutting-like pain, like as if I had eaten habinero peppers but hadn't.  Other than that I did have some random joint pain in my shoulders joints at the time which seemed out of the ordinary, so maybe flare-like.  I'll have to keep tabs on it.

All in all, from just a couple google searches I wonder if the leakage and that pain during the one bowel movement could be something like a fissure? I guess I could try to find a mirror and take a look? At any rate, if this is still happening this week I will call the GI's office. I bought some anti-gas simethicone to take and I also hope that if I cut down on the CONSTANT "farting" (thought not really farting, percolating) then maybe the leakage thing would go away.

Thanks for the responses. Let me know what you think about the fissure possibility. I also should mention a few twinges of pain lower down in the rectum throughout the day. Kind of a dull "blip" like pain. I think one problem with me and the UC is I tend to ignore all the symptoms/pains/sensations - call it a high pain tolerance or just a general unwillingness to address the issue and get away from living - probably why I got so low before going to the hospital back when i got this dd.