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'Just' Proctitis? Trying to look after a baby from the toilet...

Posted , 4 users are following.

MrsP10715
MrsP10715

I was diagnosed with 'just' proctitis last year half way through my first pregnancy (my original consultant's own dismissive words). I had a limited sigmoidoscopy when pregnant to confirm the UC, as in they didn't go too far up. Symptoms were bloody diarrhoea with mucus, left sided pain, and complete exhaustion!

While pregnant I was given Pentasa 2g BD and pentasa suppository, which reduced my bowel movements from around 20x a day to less than 10, but always with blood and mucus. I gave birth naturally New Year's Eve to a healthy baby boy but flared up the day after LIKE A MOTHER. Finally I was given steroids, IV hydrocortisone on the maternity ward for 3 days then a reducing prednisolone course to take at home. In a post partum rage I 'sacked' my consultant and asked for a new one (won't bore you with the details but he deserved it).

My steroids finished start of Feb, i continued with the pentasa and I had 2 weeks of blissful bowel movements, until the blood started up again. The IBD team prescribed mezavant instead, the flare up escalated quickly to my pregnancy standard, plus this time I had undigested food in stools. Another call to the IBD team and I am now on predfoam alongside the mezavant.

What I don't understand is the undigested food if it is 'just' proctitis; does anyone else suffer such nasties with UC?

Can proctitis develop further up and how would you know? Is it worth trying to get the full works now there isn't a baby in there scaring the consultants re: sigmoidoscopy?

Still waiting to see new consultant to ask these questions...

0 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • ehsan18513
    ehsan18513 MrsP10715

    Posted

    Hi

       What type of undigested food did you see? It may be just undigestable skin from fuit? You may also get small corn looking mucus mixed with blood.

    • MrsP10715
      MrsP10715 ehsan18513

      Posted

      Hi, that's what I thought at first, but there has now been such a wide range of food re emerging less than 12 hours after I've eaten it it's quite alarming, and reached a new level of UC grossness!

    • ehsan18513
      ehsan18513 MrsP10715

      Posted

      Hi, you may need an endoscopy to check for upper digestive problems. Please consult with your specialist. My flare up seems to relate with the type of food I eat; e.g dairy, acidic food, such as apple cider, coffee, etc. Sometimes inflamation maybe caused by too much stomach acid, damaging the inner layer of intestine. No one knows. Could also relate to bad bacteria in colon (as I had taken strong anti biotics, restarting the flare, after a year). Aftr elliminating these diets + Mezavant for a while, I am back to normal.

  • cjb106
    cjb106 MrsP10715

    Posted

    My understanding of the digestive process is that most of the work is done by the stomach and small intestine. What passes into the large intestine (colon) is mostly just fibre and water, like a soupy porridge plus some bits of hard to digest foods - sweetcorn is a common one.  The job of the colon is to extract most of the water (and any remaining nutrients) so that what passes out in a bowel movement is semi-solid matter. When the colon is inflamed it can't extract the water and that's what causes dehydration, urgency and diarrhea. The contents of the colon run straight through. So ... if you are seeing a lot of undigested food I'm wondering if you have a problem further up the digestive tract. Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis are sister diseases. Crohn's can affect any part of the digestive tract from mouth to rectum whereas UC is confined to the colon and rectum. Crohn's often affects the small intestine. Proctitis is inflammation of the rectum. If it's affecting further up in the colon it would be Colitis. You will need a colonsoscopy to find out if that is the case and an enteroscopy to see if the small intestine in affected.

    • MrsP10715
      MrsP10715 cjb106

      Posted

      Thank you for this! Exactly my thoughts... i have tried to express these thoughts to the IBD team, but they don't seem concerned. I am hopeful that I will see a new consultant soon and hopefully get some further investigation.

  • bjwwil
    bjwwil MrsP10715

    Posted

    I have 'Just' proctitis' as well

    Blood and mucus constantly, i take PentasA 2g bd, ranitidine fory stomach and foam enemas daily. I feel like pants most of the time and one of my side effects is vomiting post large meals. But i only have proctitis

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