First signs of flare?

I'm just curious what others have noticed as first signs of a flare. I've only been dealing with this disease for a few months. I've been out of my first flare for about a month after a prednisone taper eventually did the trick. I've been off the prednisone for a few weeks.
The last couple days I've been noticing just a small spot of bright red blood on the TP after a bowel movement. There's hasn't been any mucous with it and it's only been once a day so I hadn't thought too much about it. Today I woke up with the horrible all over body aches - which was a big symptom in my last flare.
Could this be the start of a flare or just coincidence? I'm just wondering if I should call my GI or just wait it out to see if the mucous with blood comes back. In my last flare at the worst point I had mucous and blood every time I used the bathroom - with or without a bowel movement.
I'm already taking max dose of Lialda and using Canasa so there's not much tweaking I can do on my own. At my last GI appt a few weeks ago he thought I should try a heavier maintenance med than Lialda as it was so tough to kick my first flare. I was feeling fine at the time so told him I didn't feel comfortable with that. Seems he may have been right...😒
Anyway, any insight would be appreciated as I'm still new to all of this. Thanks!

I've only got out of a flare twice as I'm somewhat new to this.

First time when I flared again after two months of feeling good without prednisone I didn't notice anything in the days leading up to it but one morning I woke with loose stool. I was worried I was going back into a flare and sure enough.

Second time(just last week) after a month of feeling good, a few days before I flared I noticed I was having very foul smelling gas. Then I also had body aches/joint pain in my knees. about three days after these, I woke up and had loose stool.

It sounds like you are flaring. It's possible that Canasa isn't reaching far enough and that your inflammation had spread further since diagnosis. You could try mesalamine enemas that will reach further up the rectum/sigmoid at night and use Canasa during the day. I would try that before moving up the medication ladder. Ask your GI and see if you can start on the enemas as soon as possible to try to keep things from progressing. It's entirely possible that you were never completely healed since you are having symptoms so soon after the end of the pred taper.

There are tips on the best way to use the enemas on the resources post that is pinned at the top of this forum.

It can take a while to heal completely so you can stay in remission and often pred just masks symptoms so don't get discouraged.

Thank you for all of the responses! I will definitely call my GI and get his thoughts. I will see if those enemas are an option too.
I hope everyone has a great day!