What is severe vs. moderate vs. mild.

Hello. I am glad to have found this forum. It's been helpful to read up on real experiences of UC patients. I am really not sure where I sit on the UC severity spectrum. "Officially", my doctor terms my case of UC as "moderately active" but I really don't know what that means.

I was diagnosed in last November and put on 4800mg Asacol daily. The flare got worse before it got better and the doc added Rowasa enemas and Canasa suppositories. After about 5 weeks, the symptoms improved only about 50%. I went back in for a flex sigmoidoscopy at that time and he added in prednisone (40mg). This worked almost immediately and I achieved complete remission for about 2 months.

In March, I was down to only 2400mg maintenance dose of Asacol when I started to flare once again. I went back on double the Asacol and the Rowasa and Canasa - with little effect. In April I went back in for a flex sig and was put back on prednisone (40mg). The prednisone worked once again and I was taped off of it soon after.

Almost immediately after this last taper from prednisone, I suffered another flare - this time seemed to be the worst of all. I went back on the prednisone and was also put in Imuran (50, then 100mg). After three weeks, there's been very little effect. I am going in for another flex sig tomorrow and then will be scheduled for IV medicine (I assume prednisone?).

The insane thing about my case is that during a flare, I typically have a horrible time in the morning and feel totally fine by the afternoon and for the rest of the day. I go to the bathroom repeatedly for 5-10 times upon waking in the morning. I take Lomotil which helps to calm things down after 90 minutes or so and I'm able to drive to work and somehow get through the morning. By lunch time, I typically feel 80-90% well. I might have a couple of urgent trips to the bathroom if I get stressed out or after eating lunch, but I can manage it well enough to continue to go about my day as normal. When I get home, I usually feeling near 100% normal. I can go to the gym or visit a friend or go about my business with little worry of my UC acting up. I go to sleep, wake up and repeat the whole process, running to the bathroom before i have my eyes open.

Does anyone else have this sort of variability on a day to day basis? This flare has been the worst yet in that it's not responded to the meds, but I've read some of the stories on here and many of you have it so much worse when you flare. I'm wondering if it's possible to have mild/moderate colitis, yet still have to use IV treatment to achieve remission. Or could it be that I've been off and on prednisone three times now and my body isn't falling for it this time. I'm trying to be patient with this and all and I understand more each day how much variability there can be with this disease. It's just so strange.

Glad to have found this place. Thanks.

mild = walk quickly

moderate = run

severe = whenever - it's already out, no hurry now -

I kind of doubt the IV medicine he referred to is an IV steroid. It's probably Remicade...

At times during my flare, which was severe and kept me from working or leaving the house much, almost all of my BMs occurred between the hours of 9 PM and 5 AM. I was mostly incontinent and occasionally had BMs during the day so I wasn't comfortable leaving the house, but almost all of my activity was at night. So having most of your BMs during one part of the day is not super uncommon.