Monitoring bowel well being and your stools is necessary for everybody, however much more so for folks with ulcerative colitis, says Alan Moss, MD, the chief scientific officer on the Crohn’s & Colitis Basis and a professor of gastroenterology at Boston College’s Chobanian & Avedisian Faculty of Medication.
“For folks residing with UC, paying shut consideration to stool patterns — frequency, consistency, blood, urgency, and nighttime signs — and sharing these particulars early together with your gastroenterology workforce is likely one of the strongest methods to remain forward of flares,” Dr. Moss says.
For those who encounter any of the modifications under, inform your IBD workforce. “No quantity of seen blood, persistent diarrhea, or vital change out of your ‘typical’ is simply too minor to say,” he says.
Consistency
“Throughout a UC flare, bowel actions are often free or watery and happen with extra urgency than typical,” he says, noting that this may increasingly occur a number of instances a day fairly than as a one-off episode. Abdomen cramping usually comes together with these stool modifications, that are a “sturdy sign” to name your GI workforce.
Blood
- Shiny crimson blood often factors to lively irritation within the rectum or decrease colon, whereas darker blood (from increased up) can recommend extra intensive illness.
- Blood could also be blended all through the stool, coating it, or seem solely on bathroom paper after wiping. Both method, even small quantities can sign lively illness and needs to be mentioned together with your physician, particularly if it’s persistent or rising.
Heavier bleeding, clots, or darker maroon stool can sign extra intensive bleeding and warrants pressing medical consideration, Moss says.
Mucus and Pus
Tenesmus
“Tenesmus often means the illness is now not absolutely managed,” Rao says.
Different Crimson Flags to Watch For
- Rising urgency or a sudden overwhelming have to discover a toilet
- Nocturnal bowel actions or waking up at night time to poop
- Odor modifications, together with foul-smelling stools, which may point out malabsorption or an an infection, resembling from the micro organism Clostridioides difficile
- Belly ache or sudden cramping
- Rectal ache
- Fatigue and fever (even low-grade fever)
- Weight reduction and lack of urge for food
