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

Didnt someone mention the 'Specific Carbohydrate Diet' early on in this thread ?

Works well for me. But its not for everyone judging by :

www.ulcerativecolitis.org.uk/colitisforum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2396&sid=e521a5481a49932942675394d293cf29

I've heard of that and some people swear by it, although I don't think I could hack it!

(We have a springer spaniel called Megan who gets called Nutmeg when she's got the sillies, btw :o)

I found this link yesterday; www.ulcerativecolitis.org.uk/dietarychanges.htm but it is just general guidelines. It seems i can't eat an awful lot of things i love like mushrooms and sweetcorn and as a veggie, the lack of salad and veggies will make my diet quite bland.

Howz everyone doing today?

Thanks for that - they are most of the things I avoid anyway

Bit of a bummer (lol) for me Katy, how are you feeling today? Any better?

Weighed myself this morning and have lost over a stone in 3 months from not being able to eat properly. It is the only upside for all the pain and embarassment, though i'm sure once the steroids kick in i'll put it all back on again!!

I'm still putting weight on - despite eating less

Bad day yesterday - eating after fasting,
Bad day today - must be eating the wrong stuff

Belly hurts

Sorry to hear that Katy, that's wierd, i did put weight on originally, but then suddenly began to lose it.

I was reading another site yesterday where they said that everyone will have different triggers as obviously everyone is affected differently.

Maybe a diet diary would work for you to see what the culprits are and then exclude or reduce them from your diet.

I have had to change from cereal and soya milk - which i love - to croissants in the morning cos it cushions my stomach better for the steriods. It works some days better than others and is better than the cereal cos i can't drive anywhere cos i need a wee and then the enevitable happens. Such fun!

I have been having higher up pain and also bad indigestion this week. That's no fun eh?

No fun at all

My entire belly hurts, left, right, up, down & middle really

Sorry being all depressed as despite having 'good' news I am in the same state with no prospect of a solution.

Back to the GP

I understand Katy. It's an awful place to be. Did they do any biopsies or anything they can confirm in the letter?

It can't be nothing with that much pain eh? Do you think it's worth going the A&E route?

They did biopsies for the micro/autoimmune colitis but he thought it was 'just' IBS

I don't think its 'bad' enough atm for A&E but if I start bleeding again I'm going to get a sample (esp if I get clots or those big bits again) to take to the GP.....I have a pot by the loo

Good idea, i did that too. I even took pictures (yuck) cos once i couldn't find a pot and it was very bad.

I fully intended to slap the pot on the desk and ask if the doctor was passing this would she think it was ok to wait several months for answers. If nothing else, it made me laugh to think of her face, lol! You gotta keep smiling eh?

Howz the asthma Bread? At least you got to the bottom of why it's happening now, well done.

Howz everyone else?

:( Katy. Is your GP any good?

I'm veggie too, but I've found that the only veg I can't eat are beans and leeks. Everything else is fine as long as it's peeled and cooked. what I miss most is granary bread and brown rice and pasta, though. I'd been eating all the 'wrong' things before I was diagnosed - I love raw veg and wholegrain/seedy kinds of things but they've all had to go. I'm trying to be really careful and stay in remission so I can have proper Christmas dinner and pud though. Nothing comes between me and my Christmas pudding!

Sorry you're still in pain, Chocol8 and Katy. It's weird - I've never had any pain at all even when I was at the very worst of the flare-up. They kept going on about how much pain I must be in at the hospital and trying to give me paracetemol, but I obviously have a freakishly numb colon! Mind you, if it had hurt I'd have gone to the doctor a damn sight earlier instead of explaining it all away as piles for months, but then I'd probably still be waiting to be seen at the hospital!

No, not really

I love leeks! but never ate pasta/rice/raw veg really or at least no raw veg since my teens

You might be fine with leeks - it's different for everyone. My IBD nurse told me about a friend of hers who has severe colitis but thrives on very hot curries because the spices contain certain natural anti-inflammatories that work really well for him, whereas most colitis patients couldn't go near them. It's a funny old thing - I wish there were black-and-white guidelines, in a way.

Oh I agree - I like a nice booklet

Has anyone else joined www.nacc.org.uk ? They sent me some very useful info. Good information sheets here as well: www.nacc.org.uk/content/services/infoSheets.asp

Ooh, Spider, i've just had a good old read. There's some very useful info on there isn't there?

I had my flexible sigmoidoscopy this morning, which was fun....! (Was awake at 3am for a couple of hours as i just couldn't sleep.) I watched on the screen and it was quite interesting (if quite gross). I will continue with the steroids for the next 5 weeks and also have steroid foam pessaries too...deep joy!

Howz everyone else doing today?

I'm awaiting the painful effects of the air coming out very shortly.

Hanging in there at the moment but very tired and nearly didn't make it to the loo earlier. I even cancelled a visit to my mums
How's everyone else?

Not too good

Can I ask what sort of pain people are having; I'm trying to understand what is going on with me

My pain is below my diaphram, it hurts to touch, the whole area down to my knicker line. It also hurts when I wear tight (ish) trousers/skirts and if I twist too much. I occasionally get gripey windy pain that sort of moves around & a shooting pain when I pass a motion (sorry tmi).

Is yours the same?

Hi there can I join you please? Chocol8 I've been trough something similar over the past couple of months, and just been astounded to read this thread.

I'm going in for a colonoscopy/sigmondoscopy on Wednesday morning. For the past weeks I've had similar symptoms to yourself but I'd had a Mirena coil problem too and got sent for an ultrasound for that and that kind of help things up..then the diarrheoa got increasingly more mucousy/bloody and I had to keep going back to the GP, she prescribed me painkillers and put in a request for the colonoscopy.

Then, I noticed in my back passage feeling a bit kind of constipted which was strange as ad hardly eaten anything in days (sorry tmi) it felt like a hard stool. When I pushed (very painful) this strange lump came out. Dp rushed me to the A&E as there was a bit of fresh bleeding too. Turned out it is a polyp, a prolapsed polyp. They were thinking of getting rid of it in general surgery but it was busy and not an 'life threatening emergency' so I was made a slot for the colonoscopy this Wed. The doctor puched the polyp back in again, where it is now, very painful, still bleeding. Al weekend (they sent me home) I'be just been taking lots of painkillers which don't seem to work anymore, lying in the bath which helps a bit, or with a hot water bottle. I can't wait till Wednesday to get in removed. Tomorrow I have the Picolax but haven't eaten any solids in over a week so wonder if need to bother? Also it says clear fluids wonder if fruit juice ok- there's a number of the nurse to ring so I could always try that.

Chocol8 glad you got the appt at the neaby hosp- I was actually going to suggest you look around with the 'nhs choices' thing as had to go for one of these a few years ago and they suggested a few different places nearby some of which had shorter times.

OldBag, not everyone puts on weight on steroids. I had eight days of high-dose IV hydrocortisone in hospital and then about eight weeks of oral pred at home and I was 3lb lighter at the end of the course than I was when I started them! They affect everyone differently, so if you're very very poorly (and it sounds miserable, bless you :( ) they're definitely worth a try. I was so ill that it was steroids or surgery, but they've put me in full remission with no side effects at all. Obviously everyone's different and it's your choice, but don't write them off entirely.

Just skimmed this thread - Katy, I had a colonoscopy the same day you did, it wasn't much fun either.

Oldbag - not wanting to gain weight is a daft reason for not having steroids. I'm not being horrid, just honest - any weight gain is temporary, and the relief that steroids bring is HUGE. Seriously - I can't have them any more, but within a matter of a couple of days you could feel well.

The reason people gain weight is that they make you hungry, so you can control how you handle that. And, as Spiderlight says, there's no guarantee that they'll have any sort of effect on your weight anyway. I took 80mg a day for months, and didn't gain more than about 2lb.

Anyway - if you're having a full colonoscopy I'd do the picolax. It honestly won't be that bad based on what you're experiencing already (I took it last week, second dose sent me flying to the loo but seriously not painful, and over quite quickly). If you're having a sigmoidoscopy I probably wouldn't bother too much as it'll be clear enough for that without Picolax.

I hope everyone feels better, it's so miserable having anything that sends you rushing to the loo.

Oh, should have said - I have Crohns disease, had it for the last 8 years. I know quite a lot about both crohns and colitis, so happy to help if I can.

SparkyDuchess are you still in pain after last Thursday?

Kind of hard to say, Katy, I'm in the middle of a very very long crohns flare, so pain's kind of constant. It did take at least a couple of days for me to stop feeling like I was bruised from the colonoscopy, but I'm honestly not sure if any of what I'm feeling now is related.

You sound very uncomfortable, just trying to think what might help. If it was me, I'd probably avoid anything solid while I was that sore. Apologies if I've just not read back properly (allegedly working but actually drinking coffee and MNetting!), are you rushing to the loo or is it painful with no...movement?