Ulcerative colitis

Hiya welcome to the club no one wants to be a member of.

I can only tell you what works for me.

Paleo or SCD diet.

Basically no sugar, no alcohol, no dairy, no grains.

It sounds tough but it can be done and over time it really helps.

Also find some kind of meditation CD of hypno cd anything that calms you down for twenty minutes. Mentally destressing helps a lot.

Sad to say but this all sounds pretty typical.

Tiredness is a big part of UC. While your colon is still inflamed, dehydration and poor absorbtion of nutrients will be a major contributor. Taking oral steriods overrides your body’s natural production of cortisol and once you taper off it takes a while for the adrenal glands to get working again and until they do you may feel wiped out a lot of the time. I certainly did.

I find that it’s a fine balance getting the mesazaline dosage right. 4g oral per day seems to make the urge for a BM and diarrhea worse. 2g oral plus 1g suppository seem to keep things fairly steady. It’s worth talking to your doctor about where the worst of the inflammation and source of bleeding is and if it’s in the rectum, a nightly suppository might help if you can keep it in long enough for it to have effect.

Mesalazine is slow release so it sounds as if one was washed through your system before it had had a chance to dissolve.

As Tony says, diet can make a massive difference and different things seem to work for different people. I’ve found that cutting out tea and coffee and cutting down on dairy and sugary foods has helped me a lot.

I’m assuming you are in the UK by the way you spell hospitalised. Take a look at the website of the Crohn’s and Colitis UK. Lots of useful info on the site and lovely, knowledgeable people on their helpline.

Good luck.

My breathlessness was due to me being in pain.  Are you constipated?  the reason I am asking this is that I've only just come out of hospital for a blockage and the more bunged up I guess I got, the more I gasped for air - I was going but not enough and it was a mixture between pellets and mush.  It was a tight feeling under my ribs.  Octassa did not work and pentasa didn't work either and on it I got much much worse as my last sinus infection put me over the edge.  It has moved and is now distal on me and I am still in pain and weak.  I'm on the prednislone (which they boosted with it straight into my blood stream) and some yummy appetiser drink to make me go while everything heals.  I'd get to the hospital to make sure there isn't any blockage (if you've not already done so).. don't leave it please.... it's worth the wait at A&E as if that's the problem, it doesn't become block blocked.