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

EightiesChick...OMG! 28th June is DISGUSTING!!! What are these people on - surely a chronic condition should be dealt with within a month, tops - not practically 8 months! So sorry to hear this - bad enough he suffers from UC, poor thing.

Was just gonna lol at 'posh hospital' but then realised i had called it that.

Only one more day til Katy Mac gets seen...looking forward to hearing what they say.

Sorry, KatyMac, just seen your previous post. If not too late, feel free to PM away, though not sure I could be very helpful.

I'm currently feeling like I can't imagine ever being well again, as have had asthma/chest thing now for 2.5 months and most of the time can barely breathe. Too scared to read asthma threads/go to the doctor again. Probably hormonal too, which doesn't exactly help with getting things in perspective.

Sorry, totally irrelevant to thread but just letting it out - family not very interested as I can't play enough or clean enough to be helpful. :( Desperately need 2 weeks with no work (can't afford that) and someone else looking after kids (not going to happen either).

Can someone remind me how grown-ups manage to be ill, again? Esp if they need to earn a living? :(

Oh, and relevant to the thread, have minor league UC too, currently. But can honestly say that as an old hand it doesn't really bother me that much now. :)

Have done thanks

Chocol8 I know, it's a ridiculous wait. Just correcting though, it's not UC he has, it's something totally different. But any 'next available appointment' shouldn't be 7 months away!

breadandbutterfly fellow asthmatic here too. Have you had your inhalers reviewed? I was getting breathless loads and then our practice nurse recommended I change inhaler to a half-preventer half-reliever one and it has made the world of difference. Sorry you are so ill and down. Can you get even 1 duvet day child-free for a break? Is it possible for you to work at home at all?

Third time of trying to post a message - it keeps deleting them....?

So sorry you're feeling so low and poorly Bread. Do you not have any family or friends who could have the children for a few hours a day even occasionally to give you a rest?
Or maybe you don't want to impose which i can understand, but you really need some time to yourself to rest up - if you're near Bedfordshire, we could talk....

I don't suffer from asthma, so cannot help, but are you too scared to go back to your doctor about it?

EightiesChick - I normally have v v mild asthma maybe once or twice a year, after chest infection or at summer 'mould' season - clears up quickly. So wasn't on any regular medication/inhalers at all. Still getting my head round the fact that that looks like that needs to change now. I hadn't heard of half-preventer half-reliever inhalers - shall ask, as clearly I need something major now to bring my lungs back in order (have piddly lungs normally, currently surviving on 100-170 peak flow, which is definitely not enough... ). Will work on the duvet day idea - I like it a lot, but not sure employers so keen... Or family - my DH has asthma and as far as he's concerned, he gets on with stuff so so should I. Which is true. Off to try to get some sleep tonight - up till 3 last night due to asthma which may explain why I'm a bit over-emotional today.

Good luck to all with appts!

Oh thanks, Chocol8 - just seen your message. As above, my DH's attitude is I should just stop moaning and tidy the house etc - he sounds a bit of a bastard, but I think he genuinely has no idea quite how shit I'm currently feeling - he has huge lungs and broad chest (part of the broad-shouldered thing I went for ) so even if only a quarter of his lungs are working, that's still about as much as I have normally, on PF readings. My MIL would help but has just lost her DM and is currently moving house, all within the last two weeks, so has enough on her plate. I have 3 DCs, so it's a lot to ask anyone to take them all - my parents are too elderly to be able to cope.

Wish the kids could create a leeetle bit less mess and bicker less. But feel bad that I'm not really much good for them at the mo - doing basics of food preparation/washing etc but house is in a complete state and I'm just not up to playing or breaking up arguments, or giving the attentionI'd like to to helping with homework etc.

Yes, I am scared, about going to the doctor - I suppose because the scale of this is so unlike any asthma I've ever had before. Part of me would like to be x-rayed and stuff (though it sounds like I'd have to wait 6 months plus if this thread is any indication), part of me doesn't want to know...

I'm not that far from you in Beds, I'm in Herts. Maybe when we can meet without potential blood loss on either side , we could meet up - you're not that far. :)

By the way, there is a kind of black humour re UC - welcome to the club.

breadandbutterfly This is the thing with asthma - it's often not a problem if you control it but to do that you have to not be in denial about it and take your medication. There is no medal for struggling on without an inhaler and it will only make things worse. I have been moved up to a fluticasone/salmet inhaler, brand name Seretide (the half-preventer half-reliever) 2 puffs once a day, and if I make sure I do that, I only have to use my 'normal' blue inhaler once in a blue moon and my asthma doesn't bother me at all. I would really recommend ringing your doctor's surgery for an asthma review - mine are with the practice nurse but are not scary.

Sorry, massive diversion. Think the thread should be renamed the 'Things you know really you should be seeing a doctor about but are procrastinating over, which you will then have to wait 6 months for an appointment for anyway' Catchy, no?

Eighties, nice one, i think that's well catchy!!

Bread, please take Eighties advice and get an asthma review pronto. If nothing else, it will set your mind at rest - either you'll know there is something wrong and it can be dealt with, or perhaps you could go on Seretide and within no time you'll be feeling right as rain!
Please go, you gently pointed me in the direction of A&E a few times and (although i didn't actually go), i am getting in sooner than i had hoped.

Wow, you're only in the next county along, what are the chances?
We will definitely have to meet up when we are both feeling a little better - i am having less bleeding throughout the day compared to how i started 10 weeks ago (just typical isn't it now i have an appt!).

The coloured inhalers (ie not blue) have all sorts of medications in them so far we have had:
Black
Grey
Dark purple
Mid purple
Lilac
Dark green
Mid green
Dark brown
mid brown
light brown
Raspberry

I think there have also been some with different coloured caps & bodies

But I think you need one, which one I have no idea, but you do need one

My appointment is in the morning

I have to print out my symptom/food diary & my description of what happened when it was very bad

My mum is taking me as DH may need to collect me as we are off to Papworth for him in the afternoon

& I have organised cover at work

Good luck Katy - hope all goes really well for you. Please let us know how you get on. x

I'll be fine

(I don't have time not to be)

OK Colonoscopy booked for 1st Dec cost £1200

Possibly micro colitis, possibly polyps

wow, thats expensive! Did the consultant deem it urgent to have the colonoscopy?

Are you still having bleeding? Hope it goes ok and you can put it behind you! (so to speak!)

Tracey.

Well he said I wouldn't get it before Christmas on the NHS because it's fully booked. As I'm going away I need travel insurance but I can't get it if I have diagnostic procedures outstanding, so it's urgent to me if not to anyone else (iyswim)

Argh. £1200. That's frightening. Can you then go back on the NHS if further treatment/consultations necessary?

I know I need to review my meds - I do have an appt booked for next week (need to check when) so hope that will look at this. My mum has been stressing over whether I have TB - slightly random, but it's because my aunt had it, so it's the obvious thing for her to think of. Made the mistake of googling it - google should be banned for anyone with any ailments. :)

That's the trouble with things like digestive and lung problems - they could be any one of about a thousand different things, ranging from v minor and easily treatable, to will kill you v soon. The doctors tend to assume the former, the patient tends to fear the latter.

Presumably the doctors base this presumption on years of experience; it would set the patients' minds at rest if they'd just do some tests, and before next June though, wouldn't it? :)

I guess so at some point, I'm glad it's booked - I just have to get through the next 2 weeks

Bad patch today - how are you Chocola8?

I was feeling a bit better Katy, but been stressed the last 2 days and therefore suffering like you.
Hard to be far from the loo at the mo and have intermittent left sided pain. Hopefully we'll be feeling better tomorrow.

I have ulcerative colitis - I've had it since childhood. I am not going to be long-winded but I will say four things.

1. It is dangerous to keep a flare going for a prolonged period - your colon is getting more and more inflamed and ulcerated (if you have ulcerative colitis - and this does sound like Crohn's/ Ulcerative Colitis). If, once you get medical attention, doctors can't get the inflammation under control, they will push for surgery to remove your bowel. And then you may permanently have to have a hole in your stomach with a bag attached to it, in order to poo. You can't judge when it's getting "too bad" either - I had a flare which seemed normal to me (because you get used to the pain and the urgency and the blood and the diarrhoea), but in fact was very close to losing my bowel and was just lucky I started responding to intravenous steroids. So you really need to do everything you can to avoid these kinds of extreme outcomes.

1. In line with what I said above, you really need to get medical care ASAP. And change your GP, who sounds lazy and complacent.

1. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which essentially involves removing most dairy and all grains/ complex carbohydrates from your diet, can be VERY effective for people with IBD. It essentially involves adopting a diet that is more like what our ancestors ate - foods that our digestive system evolved to be good at/ familiar with digesting. Some good testimonials about the effectiveness of this diet for hundreds of IBD sufferers are here:

www.amazon.com/Breaking-Vicious-Cycle-Intestinal-Through/product-reviews/0969276818/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/0969276818/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

(I hope the links work. The reviews are for the book "Breaking the Vicious Cycle", which describes the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.)

If you are not going to get medical attention, which I strongly recommend you do by showing up at the emergency department ASAP, I would advise that you take up this diet straightaway in an effort to get your flare under control. It may be annoying eating restrictively but if it works, it is 1000 percent worth it.

1. This thread may help you:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_health/1245330-A-couple-of-questions-about-Crohns-ulcerative-colitis-IBD

Yep to the left sided pain

Pigglesworth, the consultant said he didn't think I had UC but I might have Microcolitis

There is no way I can follow that diet - I can't eat nuts. But I have cut out lactose before now so I might try that

OP I agree with Pigglesworth.. This could be IBD and if it is , each day puts you at risk of increasingly serious illness.
Bleeding piles do not cause diarrhoea or tenderness when the Dr examines your tummy.
It is the wrong approach to say you can't go into hospital because of being a single parent... What if you become really ill, you could be in hospital for weeks which would be much more traumatic.
Time is of the essence. I've known GPs completely mismanage IBD with disastrous consequences.
I am cardioverter btw ..it really seems to me you are not listening to advice on this thread.