Early Warning Symptoms of an Ulcerative Colitis Flare

Ulcerative colitis is peculiar in that you can be developing problems and not even know it.

As I have said in past articles, ulcerative colitis is a very unique illness; each person can react differently to it, therefore, symptoms leading to a flare-up can be dramatically different person to person.

In my case, I will first have trouble with my digestion. I will find that no matter how careful I am with my diet, I am often uncomfortable. Further, I will have an unexplained feeling of "just not feeling right." Typically this takes the form of lethargy and also irritability.

Often when a person is on steroidal medications they have a problem with their emotions anyway, and sometimes there is an emotional flare-up simply from being off the medication.

The symptoms for me just get worse and worse. Finally I begin to run a fever and have diarrhea. Expectedly, I will be feeling uncomfortable in public places. When you have had ulcerative colitis for a long period of time, you typically begin to know very early when the signs you're getting are temporary or signaling a relapse.

If you are on medication for your ulcerative colitis, then the medicine will stop working or it will not be as effective. Again, this is often identifiable in a change of mood or dramatic mood swings.

Since I don't have ulcerative colitis on a severe basis I don't typically get concerned too much. For me it is a matter of getting "Cortenemas," which pretty much take care of the problem.

However, for other people, bleeding, temperature, severe cramping as well as severe weakness may signal something very dangerous such as a perforation. This person needs to get help right away.

It is always important for an ulcerative colitis victim to remember that their illness is chronic and that it is necessary to be hyper-vigilant. If you let the symptoms go, the illness can get worse.

I'm not so sure that the formula for ulcerative colitis "flare" isn't a good format for all illnesses. My wife, who is a nurse, says that no one can know another person's body better than they do; they often know they are sick before a test shows it.

I believe that is probably true that we can teach ourselves to be our own best diagnostician; it is certainly true with intestinal disorders such as ulcerative colitis. When we start to feel different, it is time to see the doctor. Frankly, the reason many people have problems is that they just are too lazy to want to take time out of their lives.