No blood then blood again?

I seem to be see-sawing. I'll have a couple of days with only a couple of BMs and no blood, then the next couple of days with 3-4 BMs with a small amount of blood and mucous, then a day or two without blood, etc. Everytime I get two days in a row without blood I think YAY! and then it comes back and I'm devastated. Is it common to improve a bit, then regress a bit, etc. back and forth as you get closer to remission? I'm keeping a food diary but nothing has really jumped out at me as the culprit. Although I did have a very stressful day recently and the next day the blood was back (coincidence? I don't know).

No rectal meds, just the Teva 5-ASA. I have another two weeks to wait before my next doc appointment. She so far hasn't mentioned any other meds; at last visit just told me to hold the course for another six weeks and see how things go.

The hard part about being new to this is not knowing what to expect. I'm trying to be positive and I know I'm probably doing pretty well, just don't know if setbacks are to be expected or if it means something isn't working. Also I'm feeling yucky from eating low-residue and want to bring some fibre back into my diet, but I don't know if that's a good idea or not while there's still some blood.

I know when I have blood, I stop and think about 1. my diet 2. I am stressed about something

Those are the two biggest triggers for me.

When it comes to stress, sometimes it is a delayed reaction. I may have been in a stressful situation and
a day or two later I have blood. Sometimes an upcoming event will stress me and there will be blood.

There are times when I eat something I'm not suppose to and no blood and other times I am clearly reminded
I screwed up and ate something I shouldn't have.

So DON'T stress over this, go with it, in a relaxed way and try to figure out what may have caused it and it should pass. If not then you may need to contact your doc.

I've had this happen repeatedly over the past year since my symptoms first started. Everything seems ok for days or even a couple of weeks, and then blood shows up again.

I've finally concluded that it means I've never really pushed all the way to remission. It probably didn't help that I was repeatedly starting/ stopping Canasa based on whether or not I saw blood. Now I'm doing an experiment to faithfully take Canasa & also Lialda every single day -- every day for at least 30 days straight, that is, until I have to shell out the big bucks to refill those prescriptions. [Stop lecturing me! Yeah, I know I need to take them. I've sort of come around from denial to acceptance. Sort of.]

I've been thinking of it this way: It's like if you cut your hand & it starts to bleed. Then starts to heal & stops bleeding. But then, you bump your hand against something and that same partly-healed cut starts to bleed again. I imagine those little colonic ulcers have started on the path to healing, but then they can't quite heal all the way before something disrupts that healing (something like normal digestion functions, lol) & starts them bleeding again.

It is very much what I experience while getting out of a flare, the trick is to keep track and see progress - I like to say as long as it is 2 steps forward and only 1 step back - at least you are progressing. So if there are more good days then bad, stay positive, if the bad days start creeping in more and more... then change your approach to treating this particular flare (eg- diff meds, diet, probiotics, etc... ).

My diet is still mostly low-residue, although trying to work some more fibre in. White bread, low-fibre cereals, pasta. Fruit: honeydew, bananas, peaches, a few blueberries occasionally. Veggies: carrots, parsnips, beets, mushrooms, potatoes, spinach (cooked), cooked green and yellow beans sparingly, zucchini, green pepper (cooked and small amounts raw), a little bit of tomato snuck in now and then although I know I shouldn't . Protein: mostly chicken, fish, pork, very little red meat. Soy milk, cheese (cheddar, Swiss, parmesan), some yogourt although none recently, small glass of OJ every morning. I'm having a hard time staying away from chocolate.

No cramping or stomach pain. Some gas discomfort first thing in the morning. So far today I'm feeling particularly well, as of 10 a.m. only one BM and it was very well formed and long, which was a pleasant surprise because that was uncommon for me even before all of this craziness started.

JIMBO55 said...
I know when I have blood, I stop and think about 1. my diet 2. I am stressed about something

Those are the two biggest triggers for me.

When it comes to stress, sometimes it is a delayed reaction. I may have been in a stressful situation and
a day or two later I have blood. Sometimes an upcoming event will stress me and there will be blood.

There are times when I eat something I'm not suppose to and no blood and other times I am clearly reminded
I screwed up and ate something I shouldn't have.

So DON'T stress over this, go with it, in a relaxed way and try to figure out what may have caused it and it should pass. If not then you may need to contact your doc.

That is EXACTLY true for me as well. I can totally relate to you @Missmarple, I was diagnosed on July '10, my first flare lasted about 2-3 months. My doc put me on prednisone (which was a definite mistake because now I know my symptoms weren't as bad), and I was lucky to be able to get out of it soon. Since I got well quickly, I questioned my diagnosis, tapered down the supps, and lived a normal life until bleeding and other symptoms came back again in a month. That 2nd flare was short and sort of like what you describe: 2 good days, 2 bloody days, for about 1 1/2 months. The key to that period was that I didn't stress out, and I started on Lialda, which worked out very well.

After that I went through a lot of changes in my life (moved to another country, started a new job, etc), but I had 7-8 very good, symptom-free months. At that point I had forgotten I had ever been sick, even though I was taking 2g of Pentasa a day (I later learned that dosage is pretty much nothing). Then, I had the worst flare to date, which lasted about 6 months, made me lose about 20 pounds, etc. Despite that impact, I didn't get into Prednisone and by March this year I got much better. The bleeding went away, but since then I've been in the pattern of having 5 good days and then 2 bad days with pain, loose stools, etc, but no blood. Now the frequency is about 2 good weeks, then 1 or 2 bad days. I even had 1 full symptom-free month, so I would say that I'm about 99% on remission right now.

It's normal to stress out when you see a bit of blood when you go to the bath room (in fact, I logged into Healingwell today because a couple of hours ago I went to the bathroom and guess what, I saw a bit of blood after several blood-free months!), but the posts in your thread reminded me of how I should react. 1) Did I ate anything stupid? the answer is yes, I did. And 2) Have I been too stressed out lately? the answer is also yes, so I need to ease up and make sure I relax more.

After 28 months of officially having UC, I'm grateful I've been able to learn these things from myself and from my UC peers. Keep your hopes high and be thankful that you're doing relatively well now. Harder times may come to you or to any of us; in those times remember that there are even worse diseases than this, and that we are lucky to have this and not something else. Be responsible, take care of yourself, and don't let this sickness, no matter how hard it may be sometimes, govern you.

Greetings from the southern hemisphere!