Could this be Ulcerative Colitis?

[Chocol8]

Sorry this is gross, but i am worried and looked online (prob not the best of ideas) and found that most of my symptoms seem to fit UC: different coloured stools which frequently changes but is mostly very loose.
Blood in stools (a lot), if i pass wind, i can pass pure blood but usually mess myself (very unpleasant), stomach churns constantly.
Being sent (eventually) for a colonoscopy to have a look see. Does anyone know what else this could be please? x

Thanks guys! Had a lovely birthday, spent sledging :o

Sorry you're still having so many problems, Chocol8 and OldBag. I've just established that I can't have chip-shop chips any more :(

Chocol8, how are you finding those uber-probiotics?

That sounds like a good birthday Spider!

I had chip shop chips this evening as were back late from parents evening. They usually don't cause any harm as they are soft, but think it will help 'unbung' anything iykwim.

I haven't had too many of the uber-probiotics due to being so ill recently and i wanted to really be able to tell if it was them causing problems or other foods. Will defo let you know though.

How is everyone doing? Hope you are all well - or as well as can be expected.

I'm still struggling, but have have my colonoscopy next Wednesday, so will hopefully know more then.

Thanks for asking

I'm.....fairly rough really I lost 12lbs in 5 days last week , still bleeding & I think I am having an attack of ME/FM as I am knackered

But food wise I have only had 2 attacks in 3 weeks!!

I haven't really bothered going, they are quite dismissive

My piles, umm, open sores?

If I do go they will say it's depression & my consultant appt is in April

I have to wait until my piles stop bleeding before I can do anything else - remember I had a colonoscopy which was clear

I just don't know what is going on

I don't know, maybe I should try a diagnose me & list everything; to see if it adds up to anything

Just had the most awful weekend

Such pain

So sorry to hear that Katy Can you not camp out at the docs until they give you something that works for the pain?

My doc gave me Buscopan but i haven't tried them yet. I've stuck to Paracetamol, as i'm kind of scared they won't work.

I have my colonoscopy on Wednesday - can i just ask, they say on the forms to have someone with you overnight. Did you think you needed that? I don't want to have to stay at my Dad's overnight if i can help it as i'm staying overnight next week as i'm having Novosure, so have no choice.

Let us know how you're getting on - i do know how you feel - as i'm sure we all do, sadly. Sending you hugs.

I would, I wasn't very well for a few days; go to work the next day? I don't think so

But then other people went back to work afterwards, so different people have different reactions

Thanks, i called the nurse this morning and she said provided i don't have a sedative, i can go home. If i only have pain relief, i don't have to be cared for overnight. I had it years ago without sedative, so hopefully i can do it again.

How you feeling today?

I have to do something; what I am not sure......

Sorry it isn't going as planned re:medication

Hey Oldbag, sorry to hear you're not good again. Ooh, what are the steroid called that you've been prescribed? I'd defo call the Gastro, they should have replied by now!

Cos i've had to go through the doc to be referred to my local hospital, they want to redo the tests again. I had a flexi sig at the other hospital and now they want to see how far the disease has gone.

The flexi sig was not too painful and i drove home ok afterwards. It's just getting the camera round the top bend eh...?

I agree that Katy's doc sounds as unsympathetic as mine. Which is why i'm still in this position 5 and a half months after i started bleeding! Ridiculous considering the ads they're running at the moment.

Oh Katy :(

I didn't have a sedative with my colonoscopy and it was fine. I did feel it going around the top bit and it was weird, but not painful. I quite enjoyed chatting to the doctor as he was doing it, and once he found out I was a biology graduate he got quite into it and took me on a little tour, showing m e where my appendix joins on and going a bit further than he needed to so I could see my own villi :o But then I'm probably not entirely typical in wanting to see these things!! I was fine afterwards apart from hideous wind.

& the pain?

I was in so much pain even 2 days afterwards

I must be weird

Hello ladies, can I join you?

I hope you are all ok and the colonoscopy went ok Chocol, i had mine without a sedative, when I was diagnosed i n 2010 and actually found it horrendous! So I suppose we are all different.

I was diagnosed 2010 and suffered a terrible flare up that last for most of a year, I was pregnant for the final 6 months of that. I was better from about June last year and had my dd in sept, I also have a ds who is 2.7.

I've been having a bad flare up again over the last 6 weeks, my consultant and the IBD nurse at the hospital are great, but unluckily for me the IBD nurse was away on hol and her replacement just robbed me off for 2 weeks so things got really bad. I am on 40mg prednisolone and mesalasine foam now. I am weaning onto 30mg of the steroid this week and then hopefully 20mg for a month, or less if things keep improving. I've been on this new regime for a week now and i'm a bit better, my nights are less disturbed and I can feed my daughter her bottle more easily, before the inflammation must have been v bad as holding her in certain positions was agony on my stomach.

Anyway, I have a lot of experience of steroids having been on them for 6 months last year, they cause me to grow a very fetching little lady moustache and my face did get quite round, the weight thing I didn't notice as I was pregnant. I have lost 11 pounds over the last 5 weeks though. They are safe to take in pregnancy, and safer than the terrible effects of uc on an unborn baby. I had to have growth scans every month to check dd's size, as active uc can lead to a small baby. She wasn't a whopper like ds, but she was 50 th centime.

Anyway ladies, sorry for the essay, just wanted to give a bt of background. This is a terrible disease and one I find other people don't really understand, as you can be horrendously I'll and still look fine.

Hope you are all ok

Hi Ava! Welcome!

Yes, i guess Spider must have been very brave. I found the whole thing horrible - from the Moviprep to the recovery, which is what i am doing now. I did watch the pictures on the screen and attempted conversations with the nurses and consultant, but was breathing v heavily on the gas and air it was a bit impossible. In recovery my oxygen levels kept going dropping so they kept putting the back of the bed up. I farted whilst having a (horrible) cup of tea and promptly followed through, which was v embarrassing.

The nurse has given me a prescription for Pentasa suppositories, tablets and enemas. I really do hope they work for me and i don't have any nasty side effects. I cut right down on the steroids as they were not doing anything except giving me a lovely set of sideburns and hairy toes! Very attractive!

The nurse said that steroids were not the way forward for me on a long term basis - but short seems to work better. Hoping they won't take me in for IV steroids.

Agree Ava that people are always telling me i look well when i am feeling utterly pants. I guess it's about educating people isn't it.

How are you doing Oldbag?

V annoying, I just posted and it deleted somehow.

Hi Chocol8, you survived, well done. I hope you start feeling better soon, it really is not a pleasant experience. I have had mesalasine enemas before, they worked really well, though not nice to administer before bed time, I always had to steel myself. I had to stop them when I got pregnant. Until my recent flare up I was on pentasa suppositories too, lovely finger condoms (!) lol. They were great, till this flare up.

I hope this all works for you and things start to calm down now.