r/IBD

I am beside myself and confused. my son had a bloody mucus stool 2 weeks ago. got him into his doctor the same day. 2 weeks later he has been recovering well, no further bloody stools and intermittent mucus. Today I get a phone call telling me he for sure has either crohns or ulcerative colitis because those numbers are absurdly high and he needs to be seen immediately. he has an appointment in a week. Can anyone relate to this? I am so scared.

Hi everyone - 33F, just gave birth 6.5 months ago, live a pretty healthy lifestyle (workout 3x a week, non smoker, etc.).

At 6 weeks PP i have a little blood in my bowel movement - last only 1-2 days was very little so I chalked it up to PP and getting back to workouts. Now at 6.5 months PP about a week ago I started having blood in my bowel movements (it was after three days of constipation, to be fair) lasting up to a week - only when I had bowel movements, bright red blood, one or twice made the toilet water red and on the toilet paper. I started using the Prep H suppositories and the bleeding stopped after 1.5 days of using them. Anus area is a little tender, I think I can feel little external hems but no crazy pain or any other symptoms.

Went to doctor of course, and he scheduled me for a colonoscopy to be on the safe side. I’m nervous, what if it’s something bad - has anyone had any experience with something like this? No history of colon cancer but very nervous and looking to connect on this. Thank you in advance!

Diagnosed around the age of 15, peak hs years. Girls varsity basketball, starting to drive and every other positive hs experience you can imagine lol. Fistula, abscess and stomach pains led me to get diagnosed around 2012. In and out of hospitals for flares until I started Remicade late 2012. It worked wonders lol was in remission for a good 10+ years. Left my job of 7 years for another and had a point in time i had no medical coverage in 2024. Everything immediately went down hill. Long story short, bowel was strictured and inflamed and i was having pretty bad symptoms and flares. Fast forward to March 2026 i elected to have a resection done, that was performed July 9 2026. Since then I have felt amazing. Like I’ve been cured (although thats impossible). I am now on Tremfya and finally gaining some weight. I can tend to my 8month old son with no issues, eat what i want. Life has been great this last month. Hopefully it gets better for you too 🙏🏽

For context I was diagnosed at 18, I’m now 28, and I had my son in 2024. I’ve never felt guilty for having Crohn’s disease except for today.

I was finally feeling like I had enough energy to go out and had planned to go to the zoo with my son after his nap.

On the way to the zoo I could already feel the pain starting and the need for the toilet.. I got to the zoo in time and the need was gone. Half way around seeing the animals, the need came and it came fast. The pain was unbearable and I made the decision to come home.

My son is 22 months so I know he doesn’t know the difference of seeing all the animals, but I can’t help but feel guilty like it’s my fault.

Some days are easier to get through than others and this one wasn’t.

Has anyone ever experienced neck and joint pain while taking Skyrizi?

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).

My colonoscopy is tomorrow for a suspected IBD of some sort. Not even halfway through my first small bottle of prep and I feel like I’m dying. I can barely drink this stuff, and massive amounts of liquid are already coming out. It tastes like salty flat sprite. What do I do?

Assuming that by then I am in remission and have switched to biological treatment, do you think a big 3–6 month trip to the Far East is even possible with UC? Can that work with the frequency of the infusions?

Really interested in going on a trek at least once in my life and been worrying about if my stomach will let me. So just wanted to ask here if anyone has been on a trekking trip and what I should be careful about.

Hi guys

I was diagnosed with uc in Jan 2025 then I was on prednisolone, oral mesalazine and azaron and got remission till September 2025 then a mild flare happened with was cured with rectal mesalo foam spray then I got my fcp in December 2025 which stated a score of 9 then again in April 2026 I got a score of 27 .

But suddenly since the start of July I started having symptoms and on July 19 I got a fcp of 2490 suddenly out of nowhere .

I am now on Cortiment mmx 9 mg, mesalazine 2.4 grams oral tablets , 100 mg azathioprine and 1 gram of mesalazine rectal spray since the start of August 2026 I see little or no improvement in my bm it's almost 6-7 times a day with little and moderate 4-5 times

Any suggestions?

I was loosely (no pun intended) diagnosed with Crohn’s (mild/moderate small bowel) a year ago and officially about 6 months ago and have been doing relatively well since a round of Budesonide and then Pentasa. Cramping minimal, only 3-4 bowel movements a day and they are mostly solid (or so I thought) but still with lots of undigested food. But was put on Predinsone for 7 days for an orthopedic issue and I realized as good as I felt I was doing, it was in no way, shape, or form as good as being on prednisone. OMG! I’m only going 1-2 times a day and they are actually solid. No food. Like totally normal. I wish I could stay on steroids but I couldn’t even stay on Budesonide long term because the side effects were so bad for me. I’m hoping maybe the inflammation will stay away after this round of prednisone.

Does anyone cycle prednisone to try to keep their symptoms at bay? Considering asking my doctor about it.

I’m scheduled to start Skyrizi.

Please someone make me feel better right now. I used the bathroom while on my 15 min zoom meeting with my manager and all my coworkers. I have to stay present on the call as they take attendance. I couldn’t hold it. I turned off my camera and set my camera in front of me. I looked down and my fucking camera was on!!! I texted my coworkers and they reassured me that nobody saw a thing and that it just looked like I was sitting down (I have my background blurred). I am so embarrassed right now and considering moving to Guatemala.

Hi guys, it’s my first time posting here and I’m really making an effort to describe my symptoms. I find it really hard to talk about it to anyone in real life and so I rely on this subreddit. ( I apologize beforehand if my English is not perfect and something may be lost)

I’d really hope someone could help me understand my situation a bit better. I’m just 19 years old. In the past years I have been frequently experiencing strong stomach pain and cramps, especially when traveling. It was something that happened frequently, but if I just lied with my belly facing down everything went away.

In the past year tough things have been getting a little worse. As I said I’ve always had these type of cramps, 90% of the time when I was travelling or in general outside of home; but in the past few months I’ve started bleeding when I go to the toilet… almost every time. All of the time is bright red blood, it’s not in the stool itself but bleeds directly from my butt… like a sort of cut. I probably think it’s fissures but I might be wrong.

Sometimes I bleed more, like a lot of drops coming out, sometimes it’s just a bit on the toilet paper, sometimes I don’t bleed at all and I feel perfectly fine. I know I’m totally irresponsible for not talking to anyone about this, nor visiting a doctor and getting proper treatment. I know its bad, but I just can’t get myself to do it.

I was hoping someone could help me to understand whether this is Chron’s or not, or something similar. Consider I really struggle to gain weight ( I’ve been skinny all my life but in the past months it’s a bit worse), a lot of the time I feel tired and I also have an history of autoimmune diseases in my family. I don’t have diarrhea at all though.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Sorry for the rough details. I would greatly appreciate your help

Okay I forgot how to do it and forgot to ask them, do i have to fast or anything else ? All I remember is having to drink that stupid drink

Hey everyone,

My partner has been experiencing for about 3 months abdominal pain. Abdominal pain is mostly present in the upper middle abdomen. It presents as pain or discomoft. At the begging it was only present for some days and pain/discomfort was more mild. Gradually as time passed things have gotten worse and present every day now with no improvment. Also pain/discomoft gets worse after eating pretty much anything (its also present trough the whole day every day). She has been having stool changes (softer then harder, smells more, sometimes undigested, oily, more yellow/bright colored, floating stool, bigger ammount of stool).

Fatigue/tiredness has been present every day.

Lower back pain

Joints/hip/knee pain

6 kg weight loss in short amount of time which stopped then.

Gastroenterologist suggested ibs as possible diagnosis but hasnt confirmed anything.

The doctor also mentioned stool changes could come from the pancreas but as she doesnt have cystic fybrosis and as other test were normal plus she is young pancreas c@ncer is regarded rare the doctor said.

Tests done:

Female 25 years old, 53 kg

Transvaginal ultrasound normal, abdominal ultrasound normal

Colonoscopy w histopathology normal only found stage 1 hemmorids.

Gastroscopy normal also histopathology normal.

Celicac disease negative from sample taken at gastroscopy.

Chext xray normal

Ca19-9 was first 47 then 40 and lastly 38.

Cea normal

Ca125 normal

Crp normal.

Tsh normal

Ferritin and iron normal.

Glucose normal

Amilase/lipase normal

Head mri without contrast normal.

Breast ultrasound 2x normal.

H. Plyori negative

Cbc normal

Did anyone have similar symptoms and how did you come to your diagnosis?

I have looked up and found possible tests could be done still but not sure what to ask for next:

Fecal elastase

SIBO breath test

MRI of abdomen/pancreas and MRCP

Thanks for taking your time to read everything and giving your personal story/opinion/advice.

I have major health anxiety and have just had a phone call I’ve been fearing for 3 weeks

I have just found out my samples I sent off have come back and the sample they were testing for inflammation linked to IBD has came back positive. My GP gave me 2 numbers which I’m not too sure exactly what they are but one was a normal of up to 150 where as mine have come out at 450. So i now need a colonoscopy as they suspect chrons or colitis.

What are any tips on how to maintain symptoms linked to chrons and to prepare for what could be? I’m honestly worried sick

I have mild ulcerative colitis mostly located in my rectum diagnosed in June 2024, and when i flare my symptoms have been managed with budesonide pills or suppositories. I take 4 mesalamine pills and 2 mesalamine suppositories every day.

I’ve had two major flares since diagnosis and ive noticed this:

Budesonide helps my symptoms and brings down my inflammation to about 500, and i can survive with the occasional pain/ diarrhea/blood.

Prednisone brings my calprotectin super low to like 40, and definitely has been the best to reduce symptoms.

This is my issue: I wish I could just do a round of prednisone whenever I flare, but the truth is that i am still suffering from hormone dysregulation and extreme fatigue since using and tapering off prednisone two years ago. I even had really severe fatigue tapering budesonide pills prior and steroid use is something i really try to avoid. Steroids have ruined my quality of life.

Therefore, I am starting to believe that biologics might be the best option for me. I am not only looking to reduce symptoms, but I want to make sure my inflammation is under control to prevent my disease from progressing or developing cancer in the future.Are biologics the best option for controlling and preventing spread of inflammation ?

Ive had this conversation with my GI, but i want the insight of others and what they have been told and any knowledge yall might have. Thanks.