How Many of you have been flare free for 1 year? 2 years? 3years?

As far as bona fide flares go, with urgent bloody diarrhea 15 times a day, drenching night sweats, extreme arthritis in my joints, skin lesions, severe abdominal pain, and relentless weight loss, etc., then I have been in remission for over four years.

However that is not the whole story. When formed stools gradually become softer and more frequent I increase Culturelle probiotics to about 4 a day. (Directions say to take one capsule a day but that is not enough for me). Formed stools are excellent feedback that I am on the right track.

I have to be very vigilant how I eat. Eating something bad at lunch, whether by accident or not, will for sure produce bloody diarrhea that evening. I have an individual and eclectic list of verboten foods that I need to avoid.

Sometimes a serious flare appears to be invading my remission. Bloody diarrhea along with stomach pain are the first signs. I really cannot stand the taste of powdered psyllium seed, (yeech!), but when I mix it in liquid with 2 packs of VSL#3DS once or twice a day, it has repeatedly snuffed out oncoming flares immediately before they become full-blown and serious. Once you are in a serious flare it is very difficult to escape from it.

Psyllium husk does not work as well for me. Adding flavor like stevia doesn't help with the taste. (Think whipped cream on shiit).

No matter how healthy I feel I know that I am far from normal. For example regular blood work says my CRP, a measure of inflammation, is around 4 or 5. Normal is under 3. So I know there is something brewing in my gut.

Before UC my CRP level was always around .3 or .4. At the height of my last flare it was over a hundred (this is not a misprint). So I am always vigilant that something might creep up again.

8 years

1.) What meds were you taking?

Remicade and Balsalazide

2.) What foods were you eating?

Everything except very high fiber foods

3.) What foods were you avoiding?

See above (Kashi, shredded wheat, etc.)

4.) What was going on in your life?

Transitioned from full-time employment to retirement, moved across the country, normal life stuff.

I was in remission for five years and the flare that ended it was quite mild (no more than 4 BMs a day and no blood, but looser than normal and some urgency).

1.) What meds were you taking?
Apriso daily and mesalamine enemas twice weekly.
2.) What foods were you eating?
Fairly standard diet.
3.) What foods were you avoiding?
Nothing other than artificial sweeteners and MSG. I've always had problems with them.
4.) What was going on in your life?
Lots during that five years -- move from WA to NY, job hunting, house hunting, starting a new job, pregnancy and first year with a new baby, etc.