Just diagnosed, will take any advice/tips, please!

Hi, and welcome. You have come to the right place. There is much to learn here. A search bar at the top can assist, and just poking thru the threads will give you Q's and A's. Many people manage their symptoms and lead normal lives. The first key is to understand that it must be managed, take your meds. Track your diet to see what helps and hurts. Get to the best IBD, GI you can. Make an appointment now for the future with one, just in case. Don't be embarrassed by any questions here-poop is what we do,lol.

Go through the resources at the top.

Over the next few months try to figure out if you symptoms get worse with some specific foods like gluten or lactose - even if you don't have a full blow allergy, it is very common to have more trouble digesting after UC messes with the friendly microbes in your gut. Temporary abstinence form some foods could be helpful for (sometimes, for some people).

Understand where your active IBD is located, and learn about how well you meds reach that particular area.

Low residue (mostly low fiber) while flaring, but important to bring back later. I find some oat bran, which has beneficial butyrate fermentation seems to lessen bleeding. There are also some foods naturally anti-inflammatory.

Sorry you have to deal with this so young.

Cassidy, so glad you found this forum. You post like a person much older than 14. I am confident that you will figure this out.

Sillystudly joked about rectal meds, but he wasn't kidding. There is a mesalamine medication in enema form that will really help you a lot. It will get you into remission faster if you add it to what you are currently taking, and it will help you stay in remission once you stop the prednisone.

Sorry you have had this diagnosis but it sounds like you have a lot of caring people around you to help you adjust to this new reality.

Right, that's what I've been doing! Thank you so much! And thanks, I would like to say I'm very mature for my age. I've been through a lot, especially now with this. Yes, luckily through all this, I've had my mom. With her initiative, I survived this holiday season. Doctors put my case off, expecting me to wait weeks for a colonoscopy, obviously I couldn't. So the third emergency room visit, one wrong diagnosis, and dozens of appointments later, I was transferred and taken care of. I had to be rushed to the hospital on Christmas eve. My hemoglobin's went from 13.7 to 9.1 in a few short hours. If I had even waited another day, I probably would've passed out from blood loss. Living in Kentucky, I was rushed from my local county hospital, to UK Children's hospital in Lexington by ambulance, if anyone is familiar with the area. Just glad to be back home, and starting to eat. But this flare went on WAYY too long to begin with, so I can imagine it will take some time to recover (began symptoms a week before Thanksgiving, diagnosed correctly with UC December 28). I'm actually trying to be homebound, in the process right now, because I am still not school ready. When I return, I do need to speak with all my teachers and other administrative figures about bathroom rights, lunch, and my medicine, as I will need to take it during school and they're very strict about bringing medicine to school.

Thank you so so much. I'm so glad I found this website. It really means so much. It feels good to have people who are dealing with the same issue, as everyone else around me has no idea really. My friends and family try to understand to the best of their ability, but they just have no way of knowing. That's what I'm hoping, that this flare will be the worst, as we didn't know it was UC. What dragged it on longer, was the wrong diagnosis. My first GI diagnosed me with C diff without a test. That's my main frustration, right now, is how they wrongly diagnosed me, making all of this much worse. And how they also put me off. They expected me to wait until January 6 just to schedule an appointment for the colonoscopy. How did they expect me to continue bleeding, losing weight, abdominal cramping every ten minutes, crying out for help, etc etc? It really angered me. By the time I even got to see a GI, rather than hospitals and my family doctor, I needed to be helped right then. Not wrongly diagnosed, taking a whole course of medicine for something I didn't even have. I really couldn't afford the time. This whole holiday season has just been insane. I never thought I would be diagnosed with a lifetime condition.

Thanks so much! Yes, I'm so glad I found this, it's going to help so much to get feedback, advice, tips, and overall direction from more experienced UC people! They didn't tell me much side effects, but I have noticed some mood swings, sleep problems for sure, and my acne is getting worse. Other than that, I haven't noticed any other effects! My medicine has helped so much for sure, I am finally able to eat. Before I went to the hospital for the last time where I was diagnosed, I wasn't eating at all. I lost 20lbs because I just couldn't eat. I couldn't even finish eating my meal before I felt the repercussions. I literally hadn't ate in probably a week and a half. Just being home, and able to eat, is so much to me. My medicine helps so much, but I still feel grumbling, and early in the morning, my stomach always gives me trouble. I've made tons of progress since I got out of the hospital, but my blood is still low, and I'm still weak. I guess recovering from such a long, severe flare will take time?

Thank you so much. Yes, I had to stay overnight at the hospital once. The second time I went to my local hospital was when I was transferred and finally taken care of, but I was hospitalized from December 24th-December 29th. So that's about 6 days. I guess about 3 weeks if what they say is true. It's been about that long of me being home, but I've recovered a lot. Hopefully I'll be healthy very soon and in remission for a long time. Now that I know I have UC, though, it will be much easier to catch a flare before it spirals out of control, like this one did. I'm just worried about school. I'm only a freshman, and starting out high school missing so much is not good. And homebound is taking awhile to be done. My GPA and attendance has suffered. Hopefully, when I get back, teachers can make adjustments so that this doesn't affect my education or records.

Thank you so so much! I can't thank all of you enough! :)

Thanks so much! Yeah, my older brother always picks on me now, for my raging appetite, lol. I finish one meal, and ten minutes later, I can eat again. I'm constantly eating it seems, but that's good! It feels good to be able to eat again. I'm eating as soon as I feel the want to, and taking vitamins as well! I also drink the nutrition shakes, known as Ensure, I'm sure you all are familiar with it. As much as I hate to gain weight, I need it, I'm unhealthy. I'm 5ft 3in, and 100lbs. I was 120lbs, so I'm just trying to get back to how I was. Hoping for this flare to end, so I can return back to school and the life I was living. I feel miserable. Also, I just thought of this, I've been having awful headaches, Tylenol doesn't seem to help. Could this be another side effect? Could my family doctor prescribe me some sort of migraine medicine? Since I can't take aspirin or anything.

Dairy gives me a bit of a problem, it always kind of has, I tried organic fat free milk for a bowl of cereal last night. But this morning, my stomach was tore up more than it usually is in the morning, so I think I better stay away for awhile. I have felt so much better from hospitalization, but I haven't made any progress in the last week really. So idk.. But hopefully soon, I'll be better. I just still feel nauseated at times, weak, and an upset stomach in the morning. I feel well enough to walk around my house, but I can't stand for long. I was in the grocery store a couple days ago, and I couldn't finish the trip, I had to go back to the car and wait for my mom. If I try and go out, shopping, things like that, I get very very nauseated, shaky, and the cramping occurs, and I feel urgent for the bathroom. I guess that's part of being weak, with low blood, right? Because, I only get that bad from trying to push my limits, like grocery shopping? At home, symptoms are pretty mild for the most part.

Your lack of physical reserve is completely normal. It's great that you are getting out even if you can't finish the "field trip" and need to take a break in the car. The nausea should get better as your colon heals. In the future, you will be able to anticipate a flare by the return of certain symptoms. For instance, the symptom that puts me on high alert is cramping. It could be a single cramp without anything else and I know to pay attention.

As far as your headaches, it can be a side effect of sulfasalazine. Maybe call your doc and mention it.

Get the process started for a 504 plan at school. Call the counselors office or social workers. This will protect you. It is important to have in place way before any standardized testing.
I am hopeful that the new Gi will treat your symptoms seriously. Pred works for awhile, but is only a short term fix. It does affect mood, weight and acne, but can help the UC symptoms. The nausea is pretty common too. See if you can get a script for Zofran to use as needed, and keep away from acidic foods for now(Orange juice/ red sauce etc). Happy reading. You will get thru this.