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Distinguishing flare up levels

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 1/4/2016 4:47 AM (GMT 0)
I have been on this board consistently the last few weeks. I have noticed that a lot of people say that they are having mild, medium or bad flares.

How are people distinguishing between these? What makes a mild flare? What makes a medium flare? What makes a bad flare?

I guess I am just curious.
Posted 1/4/2016 12:19 PM (GMT 0)
No two flares are the same. Sometimes it's subjective and based on symptoms alone (compared to my last flare this one is far worse). If a scope (colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy) was done then your gastroenterologist might define the inflammation as mild, moderate, or severe. For me, a bad/severe flare was 20+ bms a day (there is a point you stop counting), stabbing abdominal pain, nearly incontinence-level urgency, you get the picture. For me, a mild flare was 4-6 bms, watery/semi-formed and urgent.
Posted 1/4/2016 2:03 PM (GMT 0)

iPoop said...
No two flares are the same. Sometimes it's subjective and based on symptoms alone (compared to my last flare this one is far worse). If a scope (colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy) was done then your gastroenterologist might define the inflammation as mild, moderate, or severe. For me, a bad/severe flare was 20+ bms a day (there is a point you stop counting), stabbing abdominal pain, nearly incontinence-level urgency, you get the picture. For me, a mild flare was 4-6 bms, watery/semi-formed and urgent.

Yea, that makes sense. We just throw these terms around so much that I wanted to see how people classified things.

I am definitely having a mild flare. Probably the most mild I have ever had. Lots of gas, bloating, some stabbing ab pain, definitely blood but the urgency is not even close to how bad it's been in the past. Urgency will definitely increase if I eat the wrong thing. This is more of a nuisance than anything else. But I have gone through the bad ones before so I definitely feel lucky this time around.
Posted 1/4/2016 5:00 PM (GMT 0)
My flares for the past few years are very mild. I always have urgency, tenesmus that I call white-knucklers that bring me to tears, gas, bloating, spasming, stomach pain, extreme nausea.
My bms would be formed to soft to pencil to pieces, mucus for sure and that slimy crap...limited to the rectum.

Diarrhea for me would be a rarity since I do treat earlier than when those symptoms hit.

Bleeding doesn't happen often anymore. Again...limited to rectum. It would just be increased severity of inflammation...and obviously more often frequency, tenesmus, spasming, etc.

No food affects my incidence of flaring, but it will affect more the texture and frequency depending on that I've eaten during flaring.
Distressing emotional stress certainly does. My adrenaline carries me through those times until the calm...then the crap hits.
Thankfully, I don't have periods (since hysterectomy in 1993).

q
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