I agree that remission is being drug free and symptom free. Yes, it helps to verify it with a scope, but in my case colonoscopies and sigmoidoscopies cause flares, especially if there are tissue biopsies taken. So my initial remission was confirmed my scope, but later it was followed up on with stool testing like fecal calprotectin. The calpro numbers stayed low indefinitely, and I was living life to the fullest.
One thing I will say though is that even in remission, I sometimes had pain and urgency on defecation, but it was related to what I ate. My condition changed to an IBS sort of situation. I had 1-2 BMs per day but when the time came, sometimes it was really uncomfortable to hold it in. I attribute this to scarring and narrowing of my rectum from the severity of past flares. Also I think the nervous system down there gets really sensitive from all the years of flaring, so it reacts more to stuff passing through there.
I think as long as BMs are infrequent, there's no blood or mucus, no pain otherwise, and your lifestyle is back to normal, then you're golden. Sometimes we can have no overt symptoms and think we're in remission, yet we still feel like we're not operating at 100% energy... and this is because there's low grade simmering inflammation that takes up your vitality.
Post Edited (MarkWithIBD) : 10/1/2019 12:40:19 PM (GMT-6)