What is a flare up?

Crohn's Disease Forum

Help Support Crohn's Disease Forum:

C

carolinajak

Guest
Pardon my ignorance, but I was wondering what this term means to everyone?

One of the problems I have (its good and bad) is that I do not have major pains/cramping/etc. to let me know when my body is hurting. I have learned since my surgeries that I have to pay a lot more attention to my body to figure out how I am dealing with the disease.

Its not necessarily a good thing, as the disease got so bad I almost died without even knowing I had it. The major symptom were so sudden. I just want to hear how everyone else defines their "flare up" so I can be more in tune with the things I am looking for in my own body.
 
Pretty much a flare up is when your disease becomes active from a non-active state. Or it could even be when your disease is becoming controlled and most symptoms are gone and bam back to high dosages of prednisone.
 
I understand what it means. I am asking what it is to specific people. How does it manifest for each person? What symptoms are most prevalent for people?
 
Hi Jason
A flare-up to me is no appitite, felling nauseated(sp?) feeling like you wanna toss up your cookies,sometimes a fever is involved,you have the bad D'S and your whole body just aches.
Thats what my flare-ups are like. Right now I'm in one.
So my Dr. ups the dosage of my pred. if that does not work in a weak or so ,then he puts me on a higher dose of pred. It's called solumedrol as he explained it to me its like a cousin to pred. but at a much higher dose. This lasts for approx. 10 days. Some times longer. Then I just have to play the waiting game. Everyone and everybody is different.Some stay in a flare for quite a while, and others may go into remission in a few weeks. Your body tells you when your in a flare and when your not.
This is what I no from my body when I'm in a flare it surely tells me and when I'm in remission I feel like everyone else. Almost Normal
I hope this answers your question to some point.
 
Sorry I was really tired and angry this morning so I did not really read what you asked. A flare for me is when I start getting costipated and my bum hurts.
 
A flare for me is when I am exhausted all the time, I have back ache, bloating, cramps, D or loose output, loss of appetite, weight loss, muscle aches, irritability, poor concentration, feeling really low, night sweats, nausea, hot flushes. All these things happen to me when I am flaring. I have been quite well for the last couple of months apart from picking up the odd viral infection but recently, like in the last week or so, I have felt off it. Every meal I have eaten has caused severe bloating and slowed my input right down causing major discomfort so I've been taking pain killers, I am soooo tired as well. I'm not sure whether this is because I have been really hungry (need to drink more) and I have been wolfing my food down instead of really chewing as I should. It would make sense where the bloating is concerened. Either that or I'm in the beginning of another flare, we shall see.


Ruth
 
I am currently experiencing what I would consider a very bad flare-up. Keep in mind this is my first flare-up since my first ever attack last summer.

Very quickly, my stools became much much looser and more frequent. Now I am also seeing large amounts of blood virtually every time I go the bathroom. I have diarrhea all the time and moderate cramping. It's gotten a little bit 'better' (simply meaning I'm going less often, but the quality of my BMs is horrible, always extremely loose and very very bloody) in the sense that I go less often, but only because I've been eating very little lately.

I don't experience headaches or hot flashes (although today, I just began to feel very warm at work) and I don't have horrible pain, medium cramping I'd say.

Either way I'm really scared because the prednisone worked so well for me the first time I had an attack and got me under control very quickly... I am not having nearly as much luck this time around... I'm using prednisone around 30-35 mg/day but I am not experiencing much relief at all. It seems like everyone I speak with regarding this has had some form of surgery...
 
You'll have to excuse me if I'm not typing very coherently, I'm at work and very distracted.
 
Hi Robert
Sometimes it takes longer for your body to except the drugs.
Everyone and everybody is different and reacts in a different way.
So try and relax and let the drugs take their course.
Maybe you need to be on IV meds. Like a big dose of solumedrol that is like a cousin to pred. or maybe you have to increase your pred. to 40 mg a day or maybe a Remicade infusion but first always check with your DR. or GI first.
Hope your feeling better soon.
 
I'm hopefully towards the end of a 3 month flare up. My big symptoms are D, cold sores in my mouth, pain in my lower abodmen, fever and fatigue. The other cold sores are the dead giveaway that I can't mess around and have to get into the doctor to adjust my meds.

Hope this is helpful.
 
My main symptoms are flu like symptoms (tiredeness, shivering, ...), nausea, abdominal pain and painful cramping on bad days that lasts all night long. I also noticed I get constipated for a few days after a flare and i have more heartburn.
 
My major sympton is joint pain. I get it horribly from my hip joints to my knees even down to my toes. My legs start to hurt and I know that I will be in trouble soon
 
A flare-up to me starts with symtomatic arthritis. It hurts to move. I know then that it is starting. The rest comes after, the diarrhea, the bad stomach cramps, mouth ulcers etc...
 
To update, my symptoms have now evolved, I have begun to experience pretty intense pain/cramping pretty often. It's pretty horrible. As soon as I feel the cramping coming on, it takes about 15 seconds for the pain to go from a 1/10 to a 8-9/10. At that point I run to the bathroom. Once I finish in there, the pain subsides until later... This really sucks.


robert.k said:
I am currently experiencing what I would consider a very bad flare-up. Keep in mind this is my first flare-up since my first ever attack last summer.

Very quickly, my stools became much much looser and more frequent. Now I am also seeing large amounts of blood virtually every time I go the bathroom. I have diarrhea all the time and moderate cramping. It's gotten a little bit 'better' (simply meaning I'm going less often, but the quality of my BMs is horrible, always extremely loose and very very bloody) in the sense that I go less often, but only because I've been eating very little lately.

I don't experience headaches or hot flashes (although today, I just began to feel very warm at work) and I don't have horrible pain, medium cramping I'd say.

Either way I'm really scared because the prednisone worked so well for me the first time I had an attack and got me under control very quickly... I am not having nearly as much luck this time around... I'm using prednisone around 30-35 mg/day but I am not experiencing much relief at all. It seems like everyone I speak with regarding this has had some form of surgery...
 
It really really really does suck Robert. My heart goes out to you right now. I never experienced blood during my bathroom visits, but everything else. No matter what I ate or didn't. It just didn't stay in the digestive tract long :(. I hope you get to feeling better real soon!
 
Hi Robert,
Sorry to hear you aren't feeling well at all.
Please stay in touch with your doctor okay?
Expecially let him/her know about the blood loss.
Healing hugs~Nancy
 
Thanks for the supportive words! I left a post in Kev's 'prednisone diary' thread, detailing what I think happened to cause this extreme pain. In a nutshell, at the start of my flare-up, I experienced minimal discomfort/pain, simply frequent bowel-movements which were always bloody and always diarrhea. Actually, I have never experienced pain as a symptom until about a week ago (this is my second flare-up ever, my first ever attack was last summer between July and September).

Basically, I began taking prednisone about 8 weeks ago when my symptoms continued to degenerate, however I wasn't getting any relief, so I just jumped off, without tapering. Bad idea. Less than a week later, I was experiencing extreme pain associated with my bowel movements, and I was going every 30-45 minutes. So I decided to get back onto prednisone yesterday (I've also been taking 4.8 grams/day of Asocol since last Thursday), and strangely enough, my pain was reduced after the very first pill.

Weird, eh?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top