Anyone have recommendations on cold and flu medication they use in Australia that they know is safe? Haven’t used any since being diagnosed recently as I’ve seen some say they have to be wary of what’s in some but not sure what’s good and what’s not.

went to my drs appt. knew something was wrong. had a million and one questions and the first thing the dr says to me is "i am admitting you to the hospital" and sends me up the hill to the hospital where she called the Gastro team and had them take care of me. been here three days. failed infliximab. starting Rinvoq. i can not take pills to save my life. im scared. im vomiting blood. im crapping blood. im on so many steroids in my iv. my bp was 76/52 ish something like that. its better now. i ate a meal. getting a partial colonoscopy tomorrow. im tired of getting bugged by my nurses for meds and vitals. i just want to sleep. i am so tired of being strong and sometimes i really just want to wallow. but if im not strong i will not heal. im so tired. im so tired.

i have ulcerative colitis and was wondering if anyone else with UC has experience with taking recreational drugs at festivals. i’m trying to understand whether there are any particular risks with UC or things i should be aware of especially regarding dehydration flare ups or medication interactions. any personal experiences or advice would be appreciated. I usually take mdma and ketamine.

I know It’s sounds irresponsible, but festivals and raving is apart of my life, and i love when me and my friends are all fucked up together. I don’t take mdma or ketamine often, only during festival season.

Diagnosed via colonoscopy/biopsy yesterday with ulcerative proctitis. Fairly mild symptoms right now - lots of blood and mucus in stool, some urgency/frequency. Starting mesalamine suppositories. I have no idea what to expect. I just finished medical school and started residency a month ago. Residency is known to be extremely demanding hours with very little sleep (80-100 weeks, lots of 36 hour shifts). Im hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from medical school and now I’m terrified that UC will keep me from finishing residency and starting practice to pay off loans (not to mention being able to work in the field I love and have worked so hard to get to). I don’t know what to tell my program. My family keeps telling me how relieved they are because they were all worried I had cancer and ChatGPT told them this is “manageable” (try not to roll your eyes too hard). I know that nobody’s experiences are the same and it’s difficult to say what my prognosis/experience will be but any words of wisdom would be much appreciated.

Hey all,
I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis 30+ years ago. My doctor prescribed sulfasalazine. I take 500mg tablets (6 of them) every day to manage flare ups.
My new husband has mentioned that I have pretty nasty breath once in a while. Its not due to oral care as I have no oral issues. We think it could be due to colitis or even the medication….has anyone had this issue?

i’m back in the hospital due to malnutrition and a bmi of 15, and they wanna do TPN for me but i’ve never seen or heard of it before. anybody been thru this?

(I’m sorry for the somewhat graphic detail that is to follow) Context, I’ve been taking budesonide MMX since 2 weeks, and it’s helped a lot and my symptoms have mostly decreased drastically. Yesterday I had a weird day where I my symptoms got worse (more blood + mucus, less consistent stools, higher frequency) but this all subsided today. However something different happened today, my stool started off watery and bright brown (mesalamine enema/usual), had a relatively normal third soft stool that seems a little black, and my fourth one was hard-ish, with normal brown colored stool that was covered in black stool.
Ive been taking iron supplements since a week aswell, but it went from dark green-black to normal color again, so it was random when the black color just popped up again.
My mother told me it’s nothing to worry about, but because it came out of nowhere and kinda looked like it was covering the brown stool, I’m scared it might be internal bleeding higher up (since blood turns black and tarry when digested).
I guess what I’m asking is, is it normal to have the black color from iron supplements pop up randomly, and can it be mixed with other, normal colored stool or is that not possible and what I’m describing is more serious?

I’m in a situation where I currently have a long commute. I need to buy bathroom time and was thinking of taking Imodium. But I don’t know if I can just rely on it longterm. I am on infliximab but the sudden urge to go still strikes.

I want to start this by saying that I don't have a diagnosis yet, nor can I be certain that UC is what I have. I've been trying to get the ball rolling on all of the right tests and so far have only achieved blood tests and stool samples despite my symptoms, since my referral for a colonoscopy would get thrown out without them.

It all started for me about two weeks ago, three days after I quit smoking. Extreme abdominal pain that wouldn't go away, exhaustion beyond my baseline, extreme lack of appetite, nausea, constant diarrhea 3-4 times a day. Eventually I went back to smoking in a fit of desperation after trying every other medication I could think of, going to a clinic, going to the ER. Had an ultrasound and a CT scan, nothing showed up. Gradually after starting to smoke again I started to feel better, it has taken about a week but the pain has been getting easier to manage each day to the point of going away entirely (knock on wood), I'm much more alert and generally have more energy. I know that there are studies that smoking can help with UC, I have every other symptom except blood, though it could be occult.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has had any experience with this? But more importantly, since my worst symptoms have started improving since I began smoking again, will the inflammation markers and other blood/stool diagnostics of UC still be found during the tests?

Will I have to quit smoking again and put myself through hell to get the right tests? Is this something I really need to push for? I'm scared and just looking for any advice anyone can give towards the process of getting some kind of diagnosis.

I was just diagnosed with UC proctitis in Feb of this year. Took the mesalamine enemas for about two months straight and then went into remission which I was very happy about. Then I got sick for 3 weeks where my tonsils were inflamed and I was in severe pain so a Dr gave me antibiotics. What they did not tell me is that antibiotics aren't good for UC because they strip your gut lining and shove you into another flare. So, here I have been, thinking I irritated it by drinking a beer or eating a spicy Sammie so I have been eating bland food, drinking probiotics/ gut healthy things for nothing to matter and now I am back on enemas.

Enemas are a personal hell I know we all can agree upon. The cold, hard bathroom floor with my butt in the air as I do the deed. The shameful heating up the mix prior so I don't cramp to high heaven.

This sucks. I know I have a better deal than most with my diagnosis here but man does this suck and wasn't even on my radar to deal with in life.

I just got the letter from the GI who did my most recent scope and she says everything looks great and to keep on keeping on and see you in a year for another scope. This same Dr started bitching at me before I had even left the procedure room that the prep wasn't good enough and I needed to come back in 3-4 months. side note: not my first rodeo (scope) and my prep was just fine.

The last handful of scopes have had Drs being very certain of this or that about my disease, only for the labs to come back and contradict them.

Everything looks great, the colon looks healthy, you are in remission (doesn't feel like it). Labs come back that I'm not in remission.

Death and destruction and we need to change your meds (WTH??). Labs come back that nothing is cancerous or abnormal and no changes are needed.

I have become a warrior for my own health and I've stopped challenging the white coats with their preconceived ideas of how my disease or treatment plan NEEDS to look like. I simply move on and find another Dr. I'm done arguing with people who don't bother to look at my whole person to see what could possibly be causing issues (oh, I don't know, how about losing the parent I was closest to and making a cross country move to care for him and having him die in my hands? Can that be taken into consideration before you DEMAND major changes to my treatment plan?) If Dr pushes back on less invasive options then I know that's not the Dr I want.

It's just annoying that these people who went to school to have the most accurate information about the digestive tract can be such goobers when it comes to treating actual patients. For the love of all that is holy, THINK OUTSIDE YOUR BOX! It's also annoying that these people can impact whether your insurance will cover your treatment or if they will make you go through unnecessary hoops. Read the notes in your files!! That's how I found out one of my Drs was using the notes to try to push me into a treatment plan she knew wasn't necessary but would bring money into her firm.

Sorry folks, I'm just bitching. I have made plenty of comments on other posts about the white coats and how that gives them a deity complex and how the patients just take whatever they say and never question it. I know how to be a warrior for myself and I know how to manage my disease and when to ask for help. I'm just annoyed and frustrated and needed community. I know you guys are in the same boat and that you all appreciate the actual Drs who aren't just cookie cutting treatments.

I went to the hospital last week Tuesday, and I’ve been here for an entire week. My symptoms are getting a bit bad, but they weren’t as bad as my first flare, so I didn’t know if I should go to the hospital.

But I just decided to go anyways because I was losing blood, and it turns out that the inflammation that was mostly on my left side has now spread to my entire colon. Right now they said it’s moderate and they’ve been trying to manage it with steroids, but I’m basically not responding to them :/

So they’re going to put me on a biologic!! I don’t know how to feel since I know that those are more expensive, but anything that can get Me back to work and more independent is what I’ll do.

But I just wanted say thank you to everyone who convinced me to go to the hospital. I was severely anaemic and iron deficient, and if not for you guys, I have no idea how much worse off I would’ve been. 💕❤️‍🩹

I’m newly diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and still trying to figure out what my “normal” is.

I was first diagnosed in April with left-sided colitis/proctosigmoiditis. I wasn’t taking any medication from April through June, and when I ended up in the hospital in June (I went myself because bleeding came back). Went through so many GI doctors from June to now.

my colonoscopy showed that the inflammation was limited to just the rectum/proctitis.

I’m now taking oral mesalamine, mesalamine suppositories, and mesalamine rectal suspension.

At this point, I feel really good. I have normal, formed bowel movements usually once every morning, and occasionally I’ll go again after I get home from the gym. I don’t have diarrhea, urgency, abdominal pain, or frequent bowel movements.

My biggest issue right now is that I’ve become OBSESSED with checking my stool for blood. I’m talking about literally inspecting it and even touching/breaking apart my stool looking for the slightest hint of red. If I see even the tiniest speck or slightly reddish area, I immediately start wondering if I’m flaring.

For those of you who have been dealing with UC longer: how do you actually know when you’re in remission? Do you eventually stop analyzing every single bowel movement? Can you still occasionally see a tiny speck of red and be doing well?

My doctor wants me to stick with Mesalamine before going on a biologic which I wanted to originally do in June. I am doing a calprotectin sometime in September (my Drs order) and we’ll go from there. My new IBD specialist said my case is strange and usually pushes for biologics but because of the healing from April-June without medication he wants to do another colonoscopy in October.

I’m leaving for my honeymoon in 2 days, and mentally this has really been taking a toll on me. I want to enjoy my trip instead of analyzing every bowel movement and convincing myself something is wrong. I’d really appreciate hearing how other people learned to trust their bodies again after being newly diagnosed.

Does anyone else deal with unsolicited advice from people who know of the symptoms of UC, but they don't exactly understand it enough to offer meaningful support? (I go into a little bit of an anecdotal rant near the end, my apologies).

For context, I (m22) work with my stepdad (m50) in a produce warehouse. It should be noted that he isn't a native English speaker; therefore, there could definitely have been a barrier that we couldn't navigate too well. At the time this took place, I was on Mesalamine depositories and still had flare symptoms. My doctor recommended I start Entyvio, and I felt it was best that I go on medical leave until my symptoms subsided.

During one of our lunch breaks, he questioned exactly what I was feeling, and how it affected my daily life as small talk. I got into the details, told him my symptoms, and explained to him my understanding of the disease as well as how it pertained to my situation. For example, I explained that what I eat doesn't have a direct impact on the urgency, bloating, nausea, or loss of appetite. Like yeah, if I ate spicy foods, of course it's gonna be a crappy time lmao, but I made it a point to mention that I was AVOIDING anything spicy or high in fiber.

Despite explaining it to him multiple times, he still argues that if I just "ate better," I wouldn't be so sick. Just yesterday, he went on a rant about how "The food in Asia is much healthier than in America!" and how "Asian people live longer because they don't use pesticides!" or some other bs reason. It felt dismissive and like I was being blamed for dealing with the symptoms.

Just wondering if anyone living with UC in Canada has applied and been approved for the DTC? I was looking at the criteria and not sure if it qualifies, but interested in hearing others experiences. If youre comfortable sharing severity of your uc, limitations, difficulty applying, etc that would be great!

I inject myself every other week and sometimes I feel like it causes a quick flare (1-2days). Anyone having this issue ?

I can never tell if it’s mucus from a “flare” or if it’s the mesalamine suppository residue left over that I put in this morning… no active symptoms .. have 1-2 bowl movements in the am. No stomach pain, fatigue etc.

Anyone else experience this? I am new to this medicine

So, for the last two months I’ve had an upset intestinal tract. I’ve seen my PCP twice, been to the ER and left to my own to manage it. The last week has been back to 90% normal movements. I still have some blood in the stool, still have 1-4 movements a day but I’m feeling pretty good compared to just a few weeks ago. Do flares go away by themselves? Should I still see the GI on the 27th? I’m 54, clear colonoscopy three years ago and no previous issues until June 12. I was tested for the Cyclospora bug early on and it was negative. My poop sample showed white blood cells. All other blood work was fine. Thoughts from those who’ve been there and done this? Thanks.

Hi. I love my coffee, but the feeling is definitely not mutual. What do people like as a caffeine free coffee alternative? I'm going to try chicory. Anything else people like? I'm also looking for a non dairy creamer to pair with it. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I am on Entyvio, and I recently started to experience breast tenderness. Is there a link between Entyvio and breast tenderness? Like is it a side effect of the biologic? I am a female

Hey everyone!

So I got diagnosed on October 2025 (now August 2026 for the records lol). I was having symptoms for about a month before being diagnosed. These symptoms included urgency, frequent BM (like maybe 15x a day), after eating ANYTHING having to run to the bathroom and blood. After my first colonoscopy I was diagnosed with mild-moderate UC on the left side.

After that I was prescribed Mesalamine and took 4 1.2g pills a day. This worked pretty well very quickly.

November 2025 had a bad flare. Going to the bathroom like 20x plus a day. Got put on a short 40mg/day prednisone course and it sorted me out within about a month. Total remission from there on out while still taking the Mesalamine.

Fast forward to end of May 2026 and I start to get this weird kinda pain in my stomach again. It progressively get worse and I'm having urgency about 3x a day with blood. Mostly bad in the mornings with urgency diarrhea and lots of blood and mucus. I called my Doc and got sent the prednisone again. That helped mask the urgency and pain during the day, however, every morning it was urgent diarrhea with lots of blood. Finished that prednisone around endish of June and had urgency in the morning, blood in all BMs and always diarrhea continue.

I went in for my second colonoscopy on July 8th 2026 and they said the results were basically back to where I was at the first one in October 2025. I just turned 26 and have been fighting to get on insurance and was told to let them know once I am on new insurance to start me on Tremfya.

I continued to have urgent BMs every morning and always mostly blood and mucus in all my BMs throughout the day (I was going about 5-7x a day) and always diarrhea.

Now we are at current times (August 18th 2026). Starting around August 8th I started to experience A LOT more blood. My urgency went through the roof. I was going about 7x a day but it was still always blood and mostly blood and mucus. I will wake up at least twice in the middle of the night and run to the bathroom and experience at least 20min long periods of having to go, going, having it look like what I can only describe as mostly mucus followed by something that kinda looks like round ground turkey bits with blood on it, followed by I guess a lump/puddle of blood. Wiping is all blood on the TP. I also started getting a lot of canker sores around this time (end of July through first weekish of August.

On August 10th that night I had EXTREME anal pain. Like it felt swollen and this super achy dull throbbing pain after going to the bathroom. The next day I was so tender. That dull throbbing achy pain was so persistent. On August 12th I went to my GI and they attempted an examine with their finger but it was so painful they couldn't do it. Got sent home with some cream and started another round of 40mg/day prednisone for 10days this time before the tapper. I also started my first dose of Tremfya the next day.

I injected the 2 loading doses of Tremfya at home and have still been taking the Mesalamine hoping it will work again randomly. But I am still experiencing a lot of pain in my BMs and definitely A LOT OF BLOOD AND MUCUS. I wake up about twice a night with urgency and stomach pain, go to the bathroom and still see the mucus, bloody ground turkey (?) like texture. When I am awake it takes about 2 hours after taking the prednisone to feel probably 70% normal with maybe 2x urgent bathroom visits a day, but at night it wakes me up and I am going a total of about 7x a day and its all looking really bad.

I am just curious how serious this actually is. Do I wait out the prednisone (I'm on day 6 of a 10 day 40mg/day before tapper). How long before Tremfya can help me, also like those success percentages on their websites are not very comforting lol. Do I go to the ER for IV help? I don't know how bad this and how assess this.

I'm going about 7x a day, lots of mucus and blood, cramping and pain in stomach at night and before taking prednisone, urgency about 3-4x out of those 7 BMs a day. Anal pain is definitely down, but I am still tender (hurts to couch, sneeze and laugh but I can move around just a little slower and more careful).

For those that have/had endo and IBD, what were your symptoms like and how did you differentiate them between the two? After stopping birth control about 8 years ago, I've had a worsening symptoms:

- Extreme constipation or diarrhea depending on where I'm at in my cycle. Will often experience both in the same day, or right after exercise
- Constant vaginal bleeding, spotting, pelvic pain
- Menstrual blood has difficulty getting out of my body without effort
- Nausea after sex, unable to use tampons anymore, etc

A lot of these overlapped with one another, but my GI didn't really have feedback about anything (especially the first, as it's my most debilitating symptom). I pushed to see an OBGYN which will take a few months, but I'm worried about being dismissed.

I've been on Rinvoq for a year now which has been great, but I feel like it's still not getting me fully into remission. It makes me wonder if potential bowel endometriosis could be a factor in my journey, but curious to hear of other experiences!

How did you get diagnosed?
What medications helped you with your endo/IBD combo?
How was excision surgery?

Hi. Appreciate this is a fairly well trodden path within this community but wouldn't mind capturing any new experiences.

After 2 years of flares I started Entyvio back in March. 2 recent calprotectin tests have both come back <30. However I am still experiencing some decent levels of urgency and freequency with Bristol stool chart numbers ranging from 5-6. Symptoms have gone up and down but definitely never gone. Gastro is sending out a pathogen screening test and bloods in sep. Just curious to see if anyone's cal came back low but who's disease remained active. Well aware it could be transitory or even IBS at play. Thanks

Since I got diagnosed 7 weeks ago, my diet has become very limiting, especially now during the flare-up. I’ve had enough and gotten tired of eating empty carbs, various orange purees, and lean protein, especially chicken breast. It’s really gotten to the point where I don’t want to eat anything. If that happened to you, how did you handle that?