Questioning remission

Hi!

Just wondering if anyone has trace amounts of blood and bits of mucus while they are in remission. I feel so well, formed stools, 2-3 a day but just seeing very trace amount of blood.

Thanks in advance!

Yes. Coming out of a flare, I think. Gastro won’t tell me if I’m in remission, though, because I refused the medication she was offering. I’m still on sulfa meds but she wanted me to go on biologics for a very mild flare. I did a sigmoidoscopy and everything looked good she said. So I’m trying to figure out if I’m in remission.

It’s on the stool but it’s like microscopic pieces of blood.

There is research evidence that going direct to biologics can be better in long run. I think it depends on the severity of initial flare. If the mild symptoms was alongside a surprising amount of inflammation (can happen) the GI advice may have been wise.

But, patients make the final choices - taking many factors into account. I doubt the GI is refusing to say if you are in remission because you declined to start biologics. You may want to examine that belief before you have a dysfunctional relation with the GI.

The GI can score you on something like the Mayo scale and tell you if your score is consistent with clinical remission.

The GI can look with a scope and tell you if no inflammation is seen, which is a higher standard of remission. A full scope was not done, but a limited proctoscope was done - and you WERE TOLD the results. No inflammation seen.

If biopsies are taken, a pathologist can say if the tissue condition is consistent with histological remission.

But it is always "consistent" or not, and remission is a slippery term. What exactly do you want to GI to magically say about remission?

If blood is bright red, then there is likely some tear or hemorrhoid unrelated to inflammation. If there is also mucus, the picture gets more ambiguous, but there is always some mucus in a healthy colon.

If the blood is dark or clotted, it is coming from higher up, and you need to have a full scope.

It might be reasonable just to monitor the situation for a while because the scope is a larger undertaking, and waiting a bit longer to see how things develop is reasonable since there is so little blood.

Hijacking thread! Hi Heather! So good to see a familiar "face"! Hope you are well.

Post Edited By Moderator (iPoop) : 9/23/2019 7:19:43 AM (GMT-6)

Thanks so much for all the responses

I had a full colonoscopy done at the beginning of July. I was told there was some inflammation, varying between mild-moderate left-sided only. GI recommended biologics but I asked if I could try LDN. I want to get pregnant and don’t want to be on biologics for it, and I have to be in complete remission before getting pregnant. The GI was not happy about me asking about LDN. She refused to even talk to me about LDN and the SCD diet. So I asked her if she could do the sigmoidoscopy a month and a half later to monitor me while I was doing the SCD and starting LDN (I got from my naturopath). She agreed. And we did the sigmoidoscopy. She said it looked good but yes, doesn’t scope entire colon and she didn’t get too high. But after the procedure, she said, Okay, looks good. You can see me twice a year but come see me if you get pregnant. So I was very confused and asked, so am I in remission if I can get pregnant? And she said, I can’t say, you will always have low grade inflammation. Her answers aren’t direct and very wishy-washy. I had a baby in 2018 and the GI I had them made it very clear as to when and when I couldn’t get pregnant. She told me, since I’m not doing what she’s recommended, that she can’t tell me whether to get pregnant or not - so confusing! I’m waiting on my calprotectin results which are taking forever - been 2 weeks now but they said their machine was broken.

I am taking rectal and oral mesamalines/Pentasa. I’m also taking LDN and following SCD diet combined with a food sensitivity testing I did. Very restricted in foods right now, trying so hard to get into remission.

I do see a couple pieces of darker almost clot-like blood only during my first BM in the morning but not again for my other two BMs during the day. And the next two might or might not have bright pieces of red blood. So it’s very strange, sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not. It has decreased significantly and I feel so much better. So I’m just confused and hope I can attain remission with what I’m doing.

Did your doc do biopsies with the sig-scope?
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