Will my remissions always be this long?

I've had UC since last October, and I unfortunately had to drop out of school because of it, despite the
fact that I was taking an extremely hard course and I was actually managing to do good in it.

And this is what kills me, is that I've had such horrible luck in my life, and I'm afraid if I go back to school, and pay for tuition yet again, I will have another flare that will force me to drop out and keep losing money.

In October, I had a flare until mid November. It was so horrible, I stayed in bed the entire time.
I was on prednisone and mezavant pills.

The symptoms did just halt, they were getting better as a few days went on, until my bowels were completely fine. And then, about a week and a half later, I ate some chinese food with apparently quite a bit of MSGs in it, next day I was back into my symptoms. This progressed for about 2 weeks until all of a sudden, they were gone again at the start of December.

It is now April, I have not had any symptoms since December.
Sometimes when I go to sleep I will hear a bit of grumbling, and rarely I will get cramps but other than that
I've been perfectly fine.

For those of you who don't want to read all that, please read this as this is the basis of my topic.

I've been told it is unknown why symptoms come back, as I've ate some pretty fatty and bad things while in remission and I still haven't had symptoms for like 5 months.

What I want to know is, the length of remissions.
There is no determinate answer for this, but maybe some people who have experienced UC can enlighten me by telling me how long their average remission is.

Let's say I have symptoms for about 2 weeks. Then I go into remission for about 5 months.
After those 5 months, I get symptoms again.

Is it very likely, when those symptoms go away, that I will be in remission again for about
another 5 months?

I'm very concerned that if I go back to school, they will come back and I'll lose another couple thousands of dollars all for nothing. Or if I get a job and I'll have to quit.

On average, how long are your remissions?

Oh sorry I forgot to mention.
I am currently off the prednisone and I'm just on mezavant pills (4 a day).

So I'm still not sure if my remissions will always be this long...

Seems to me like you have two choices:

1. Be afraid the rest of your life, not go to school, and not get a job because you might have another flare

2. Live your life the best you can

Best advice is to never stop taking Mezavant, no matter how good you feel and no matter how long you have felt good and avoid foods you know have triggered your disease to return.

Well thanks for everyone's kind words and advice.
What I'm really looking for though, is that I'm still a bit worried that
my flares may eventually start coming back constantly.

Is it actually possible for me to continuously get flares and remissions off and on very quickly
in parts of my life?

IE:
Flare for one week
Remission for one week
Flare again for one week or two
Remission again
...
Process repeats

Are there people out there that actually suffer from colitis on a regular basis?

Unfortunately no one can tell you an average or what is likely to happen for you. My story is one of the more optimistic ones in that, in the past 30ish years, my remissions last a good few years each time and I was never hospitalised again for UC after the first major episode in late 1988. I do feel for you having had to stop your course. I missed about 1/4 of my final year of university with my big flare, they wanted me to repeat the year, luckily my steroid induced "assertiveness" gave me the energy to fight that and I got through. I have since then had to bow out of jobs that demanded lots of travel to far flung places and long hours.

Can you perhaps look for a course at an institution that is disability friendly and will allow you a break if necessary? Sounds like you were at a very unforgiving place if they made you drop out without the opportunity to catch up on what you missed. In the UK, IBD is covered under a law called the equalities act, which means that employers and institutions have to make reasonable adjustments for you unless they can prove a very good reason why it is impossible for them. Sorry if there is not such a thing where you are - it's worth fighting for if there is not a law to protect those with health conditions that make everyday tasks impossible.

The way I think about UC is that my body is going to say no if I force myself into activities or a lifestyle that doesn't allow it plenty of care. It's a shock if you are used to pushing yourself and see people around you not having to take so much care.

Once thing we have to learn with IBD is to deal with uncertainty. From not knowing what caused it, to not knowing which drugs and or alternative treatments are best to not knowing when we might flare. Life becomes trial and error. It's not all bad though!

 I see a pattern here... You being on steroids and maintenance med the periods of remission shows that meds are working and then flaring shows that something getting into your body is not well tolerated which trigger the relapse. At present you know that Chinese foods as trigger for you. Recording each and every thing you consume will help you figure out what other triggers you need to avoid to keep the remission.

Keep a food diary- Promptly enter the foods you take and your symptoms each time. This will definitely give you an idea what is helping and what is not.

 To maintain a long remission its very important to avoid your triggers and maintain a strong immune system.

 Once you diagnosed with a chronic disease the fear about future especially studies is natural until you get a hold over it. For some it takes long time and different approaches...but for others the meds alone is needed. And then there is another group who manages with meds and life style changes. Be patient and pay close attention to what you put inside your mouth. Never fail to take your maintenance med.

No way of knowing. But think about this. I survived 4th year engineering with a month out in the hospital and im still flaring minorly finishing it up. i had to push and push hard I did. Get in remission, then go to school and dont worry about flaring again. If it happens fight it. Another suggestion is taking spring and summer courses to lighten your workload overall.

bananagirl said...
there is honestly no way of knowing how long your remission will be. it depends totally on whether your meds/supplement/diet/treatment plan is working. if it's not, then you'll most likely flare again.

my first remission was 4 years and then my next remission was 3 months. i've been flaring for over a year now but when i get in remission, i will do EXACTLY the same thing every day that i was doing to get there. if that means staying on my restrictive diet, then i don't care. it's no biggie compared to feeling like death all the time.

Oh my gosh this actually kind of scares me...
The fact that you've had a remission (4 years) and the fact that you can still get
a flare that lasts up to a year really, really scares me....

It's just, I thought that if I've been in remission for this long, that I'll eventually go into remission for around the same length of time next time I flare.

When it comes to trigger foods, honestly the only one I can think of was the Chinese food,
since I flared the very next day.

I've tried a lot of fatty foods to see if it would trigger, but so far nothing...
Even alcoholic beverages, acidic beverages, soda pop, absolutely no symptoms..

sugar, yeah, it does suck that flares/remission is so unpredictable. flaring in college was hell for me and i was in my senior year internship at the time. i somehow graduated because i worked with my dean/teachers and told them about my illness. they were very understanding about it and let me go into my internship on days that were better for me instead of sticking to the schedule.