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Severe Flare and Colonoscopy Scheduled

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 11/16/2011 2:32 AM (GMT 0)
Hello all.  I have been battling this diease for 14 years, and although I have had some years at a time of remission, I am currently in the midst of a severe flare and not responding to my meds.  Actually, mild symptoms started a year and a half ago and have spiraled out of control in the last three weeks.  I just got home from a three day hospital stay where I received antibiotics, electrolytes, steroids, and my oral meds.  When i left I seemed to be on the mend - I went from 22 BMs a day to 2.  Well, two days later and I am back up at fifteen BMs a day, with much worse pain than before. 

My doctor's associate discharged me with instructions on prep for colonoscopy I will be getting on Thursday.  I have had about 10 scopes before, but never in a flare this severe.  I called doc today, and he told me to take oral antibiotics and he'll see me on Thurs.  Will I be okay to get this scope???  I am bleeding an enormous amount and in tremendous pain without the stress of the prep.  I am also very nervous that I will not have the strength to fast for 1 and a half days that is needed between the prep and actual scope. 

Any advice??  I usually trust my doctor, but this time I admit to second-guessing his judgement. 

      

Posted 11/16/2011 3:09 AM (GMT 0)
Ooo I unfortunately don't have any advice. I can just tell you what happened with me. I was scheduled for a colonoscopy once during a really bad flare and the prep made me so much worse the morning of I couldn't leave the bathroom. I had to cancel the colonoscpy because I couldn't physically get there. My doctor put me on prednisone and then remicade and we went "blindly" into the flare. After I started to stabilize I tried the colonoscpy again and was fine. Idk what he's hoping the antibiotics will do for you but good luck! Maybe you could ask your doctor to put you on a short burst of prednisone at a high dose or up your dose if you're already in it??
Posted 11/16/2011 3:24 AM (GMT 0)
So sorry you are having such a tough time. I have had 2 scopes in severe flares. One of the time it didn't seem to make my symptoms worse, but I was so worn out and dehydrated that I was really out of it. It seemed like it took me 2 days to come out of anesthesia.

The 2nd time I was really nervous about the scope because I was having severe bleeding. The worst bleeding I had ever had in 10 yrs. I was really worried the prep would make things worse. Shockingly it didn't, but they did spread out my prep. They took the usual prep dose and had me do 1/3 the 1st night, 1/3 the next morning, and 1/3 the 2nd night and then had the scope the next day. So I actually went 2 days without eating.

I guess it depends on what the doctor thinks he needs to see. In my case the bleeding was so bad they really felt they needed to look and see what was going on.

Good luck, I hope it goes well!
Posted 11/16/2011 1:33 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks so much.  I thought I revised my signature, but for some reason it isn't in my post.  Anyway, I have been on every med but Remicade so far, and Imuran worked for years, but not anymore, unfortunately. 

Right now I am on 32 mgs of the steroid, Medrol, and it is making me worse if anything.  My symptoms are even worse today, and I am already dizzy and out of it.  One of Cipro's side effects says it causes dizziness though. 

My doctor's associate talked about getting the paperwork together for Remicade, which i have heard can take up to a week for everything to go through, but my doctor wanted to try a higher dose of the Imuran instead.  Now I believe we are wasting precious time, since the purpose of the hospital was really just to stablize me and bide us more time for the Remicade to be cleared.  Now I am worse off than square one with no plan B in place. 

I am now wondering . . . do I HAVE to try Remicade first, or can we just move right into the surgery??  I am beyond done with this disease!!!!!!

Posted 11/16/2011 7:11 PM (GMT 0)
i honestly don't understand why doctors love doing scopes when your colitis is really bad. the same thing happened to me in august only for them to say "yeah, your colon looks bad." a donkey could've told me that based on my horrendous bleeding and bowel movements. i don't think it's necessary for you to get it down because it's obvious what they will see- ulcers and inflammation.

i think you should try remicade before surgery. i noticed an immediate improvement with my colitis although i am also on 6mp so i'm not really sure what to attribute my recovery to.
Posted 11/16/2011 9:43 PM (GMT 0)
Though I do agree with banangirl on GI's thoughts of doing colonoscopy when you are in flare, I asked this to my former GI. His response was, he wanted to know where and how much the inflammation is, so that he can either give me, enema or suppository with other oral meds. This happened almost 4 times and when he noticed that the place and flare is almost same all the time, he stopped doing it, otherwise every time I visit him, a quick sigmoidoscopy.

Just request your GI for some medication to slow down your peristalsis so that you don't have an accident or something. The worse part of it is the air that they push in than the scope itself. (Though I know its the air that causes less discomfort of the scope)
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