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What are your first signs a flare is coming on?

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 1/5/2014 8:39 PM (GMT 0)
I'm currently med free and scared I'm going into a flare. Waiting on Lialda refill and had to quit 6MP. What signs can I watch for besides the obvious blood?
Posted 1/5/2014 9:00 PM (GMT 0)
Personally I think it is a simple question. Either you are a normal human being or you aren't. Normal people don't poop three times a day with or without diarrhea. If you notice your stools getting softer, have mucus, have blood streaks, or you start going 2-3 more times per day then it's happening. To me if you have been diagnosed with UC and you aren't a totally normal human being BM wise then you are in a flare and are not in remission.
Posted 1/5/2014 9:18 PM (GMT 0)
For me, these are the signs that I'm starting to flare (after being perfectly without any symptoms)....
-cramping gas that is continual and not related to food
-pain in my stomach area that's continual
-gas that is difficult to expel..meaning it kind of explodes then disappears in the rectum
-mucus
-thinner stools

The clincher is....
-urgency that produces a discomfort while having a bm
-the next day will be frequency with all of the above symptoms that include whimpering and white-knucklers
-QBS (quivering/spasming butt syndrome) continually

q
Posted 1/5/2014 9:54 PM (GMT 0)
The minute I see mucous I know I could be in a butt load of trouble. I up all my meds immediately.
Posted 1/5/2014 9:56 PM (GMT 0)
gas, mucous, blood, looseness, increased frequency, feeling pressure in the rectum... Lots of things could be a sign but I wouldn't go crazy trying to look for symptoms, maybe you're ok.
Posted 1/5/2014 10:38 PM (GMT 0)
Incredible stomach pain and urgency are my first signs.
Posted 1/6/2014 12:38 AM (GMT 0)
For me I have looser stools and have them more often.
Posted 1/6/2014 2:00 AM (GMT 0)
Frequent gas that smells absolutely foul...I'm not talking normal farts here people
Posted 1/6/2014 2:10 AM (GMT 0)
Oh goodness, yes!! Well, for me it's the stool that smells absolutely revolting. I volunteer for the SPCA so I've smelled a fair share of revolting number twos, but this smell that UC causes really takes the cake. Ugh!!
Posted 1/6/2014 2:46 AM (GMT 0)
my flares have all start differently so i know if something is out of the ordinary, i'm screwed.

bleeding, cramping, mucous, bloating.
Posted 1/6/2014 4:45 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the responses.

I've had pretty much had no gas whatsoever for a year due to medication working I suppose. Now, I'm starting to get gas the past few days and it seems unusual. I don't know how my first flare started except one day there was blood and within a matter of months I had severe inflammation and dysplasia. My first and only flare lasted two years until I started 6MP. I must have missed the "warning signs" the first time.

Gary, I have 3 bm's and sometimes their loose and I'm in clinical remission.
Posted 1/6/2014 4:50 AM (GMT 0)
I always say I have the feeling that I "missed a fart." Sounds stupid but that's what it feels like. For me, looking back, I actually feel like I urged on the flare with all of my stress about not wanting to flare. I start taking some sitz baths, exercising and finding ways to relax if I feel like I have one coming. Probably not medically accurate, but I feel like I have staved off at least 2 flares just by "fighting back."
Posted 1/6/2014 2:56 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry to be a Garydowner but I've always believed that "clinical remission" is a load of crap. It's the doctors way of cheering you up, even though you're still having symptoms. Of course it is better than not being in clinical remission but if you aren't totally better then you're not really in remission and you can slide off the cliff at any moment.
Posted 1/6/2014 3:29 PM (GMT 0)
Garydowner, my doctor has never said "clinical remission" to cheer me up. You seem mean-spirited saying that comment. I call it that because it's a medication-induced remission. Maybe I'm misusing the term. My doctor and I have been focused on getting the inflammation under control so I don't get colon cancer. As you saw in my previous post at my worst I had severe inflammation with dysplasia. I take it your UC has never gotten to that level?
Posted 1/6/2014 3:54 PM (GMT 0)
My first sign is always mucus.

I hope you are not bleeding.
Posted 1/6/2014 4:18 PM (GMT 0)
fatigue > more times visiting the toilet > thinner turds > blood


that's pretty much the progression in my uc world -


you know, you just had a birthday - maybe you're just getting old like the rest of us :-)
Posted 1/6/2014 4:26 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry. I thought you were repeating what the doctor said, since that is a term doctors use when they check you out and find no signs of inflammation and yet you are still having symptoms. Didn't mean to sound mean spirited but I have a very strict definition of flaring and remission, even for myself. Many people would say that I was in remission and not flaring but I have never considered myself to be either one in the over three years I have had this disease since I have never been normal during the entire time. In my mind, close is something when you are playing horseshoes.
Posted 1/6/2014 4:39 PM (GMT 0)
More frequent bathroom trips ultimately culminating in extremely loose stools. Mucus and blood usually follow, along with horrific cramping and foul gas in extreme quantities. Sometimes the oncoming flare gives itself away with lower right abdominal pain before the bleeding starts.
Posted 1/6/2014 9:22 PM (GMT 0)
When I start to get rumbly, crampy gas pains that make my mouth salivate like I'm about to throw up just before a bowel movement strikes out of nowhere, I know I'm in trouble. Does anyone know what I mean?! Then the pain and nausea go away until I suddenly need to go again.

I am currently in remission... Haven't been this "normal" since I was a small child!! I'm attributing it to the grace and mercy of God because I was SO SICK just two years ago! I went for weeks at a time where I hardly got out of bed other than to use the bathroom.
Posted 1/7/2014 2:36 AM (GMT 0)
Whats weird after reading the replies is that I never see mucous.

Never.

Sign that a flare is coming would be urgency after eating. Going more frequently.

I can confirm the flare by having self-pay bloodwork done which I just did 8 weeks in a row - CBC is 10 bucks.

If neutrophils are rising then the immune system is on the attack. Japan filters them out of blood to stop a flare sometimes for 2 years. The body recreates them in just hours but the new ones are not programmed to attack the colon.

Recently my neutrophils plunged from 14 to 6 with ASACOL HD, qing dai and RS diet. Not under 4 but a heck of a lot better.

After lots of bleeding my platelet count climbs to 700, got that back to 350 now.
Posted 1/7/2014 4:20 AM (GMT 0)
Aguywithuc - I don't think that's weird. Everybody is different. I have never had blood in my stools that I could see, which seems to be a normal thing for ppl with UC.
Posted 1/7/2014 6:20 AM (GMT 0)
You are right, Gary, we have to get as close to normal as possible, but it may never be the same as before being dx with UC.
Posted 1/7/2014 6:20 AM (GMT 0)
You are right, Gary, we have to get as close to normal as possible, but it may never be the same as before being dx with UC.
Posted 1/7/2014 2:42 PM (GMT 0)
More bathroom time-cramps-urgency-bloody stools-joint pain
Posted 1/7/2014 3:23 PM (GMT 0)
Really bad gas...when my gas smells like death, then I know I have a flare-up coming on. I know it probably sounds crazy, but the smell of my gas before a flare-up is 1000x worse. I also have a lot of fatigue and cramping...between mild and severe.
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