What's the inbetween?

[Asher]

I hear the terms "flare" and "remission". Is there an in between?

I had good and bad days before my DX 6 months ago. I had only one "flare" (i guess a flare to me was going to the bathroom 10x+ a day for over a week before I decided to go to ER and they found crohns).

Since getting out of the hospital (where my "flare" ended thanks to prednisone and asacol I guess?), I haven't had many issues. Some discomfort here and there but no D. I started Remicade and I'm still on asacol. The only "crohn-like" symptoms I have are mucus in stool and I've had blood two since since December. No D what-so-ever.

Im not in remission though, right? BecAuse I've had blood? But I'm not in a flare, because I'm not having D and worried about a bathroom. Do a lot of you live in this middle stage? Or am I fooling myself

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Yes, I'm there myself. I've also had blood in my stool lately, but in the past my bleeding has usually been due to internal hemorrhoids and/or fissures, not inflammation - so if that's the case now as well, then technically I'm not in a flare. Keep in mind, every flare can be different, so you may be having a flare where you just aren't having d and urgency right now. It would be a good idea to get checked out to find the cause of the bleeding if you haven't already. You may still have mild inflammation which technically would be a flare, but maybe is mild enough that you're not having your typical "full" flare symptoms. If you have things like scar tissue or strictures, those could also be causing you some symptoms without inflammation being present, so that wouldn't technically be a flare but could potentially feel like a flare or feel like that "in-between" grey area.

I'm rambling on again, but technically speaking, in a nutshell you're in a flare if there's inflammation present and you're in remission if there's no inflammation. But the way you can feel, unsure what's going on and with some minor symptoms that happen some of the time, that all definitely feels like grey area and I can relate to that and am there myself. remission should feel better and a flare should feel worse, that's where I'm at right now. It is an odd place to be and it feels like one misstep will bring on a full flare, so for me I'm just sort of walking on eggshells right now.

 

[Asher]

I understand what you're saying. Thanks so much! I can totally relate to the walking on eggshells. I'm still eating a low-fiber low-residue diet and every now and then I'll try some different food. But maybe once a week or once every two weeks because I'm just too scared to eat the wrong thing and jump start a flare.