Hi! I am new to this and looking for some answers. I found this site and there seems to be a lot of good information here. So here is my story:
6-8 years ago I had experienced some diarrhea that lasted 3-4 weeks. Each time we were on vacation so I figured it might have been the water in Florida. I also had a severe bout with it at home that took me to ER as this had blood and mucous.
I would get some diarrhea off and on. I was usually constipated. Then a couple years ago I started getting diarrhea that lasted several days at a time. I could barely make it to the bathroom. I even had it during my sleep, waking to messes. I thought my pelvic floor muscles were shot due to birthing 5 babies. Then I would have long stretches between incidents. Nothing to frequent. This past June, I started having different problems.
I work as a server in a restaurant. I started getting urgent needs to go to the bathroom. Needs I could not ignore. I had some really close calls. Only this wasn't diarrhea. It was massive soft stool, almost explosive. When it decides to go,it goes!!I felt like I had emptied my whole bowel. Gas and bloating preceded this. I work in a position that I cannot just break away. I have left my guests waiting while I make my get a way to the bathroom almost running. So I got into see a Gastrointestinal Dr who ordered a colonoscopy. I also just happened to be having another bout of diarrhea when I saw him. It revealed MC.
I am taking Budesonide(on for a month now) for MC and Zenpep for low pancreatic enzymes. Things were good for the first several weeks, but my work poops have returned. This only happens like this at work, at about the same time in the evening. It has become more frequent. I cannot keep working like this. I get gassy that I can't control. I am wearing Depends to work just in case. I feel stress brings this on.(Even more so cause I worry about it happening) Right when I start to get really busy. If it is work stress, is there anything that can be prescribed. I have been trying to see if any food particularly dairy is a culprit but it doesn't seem so. This is taking an very emotional toll on me. I fear I will crap my pants while taking an order.
So is there such a thing as mild MC? I don't have a lot of diarrhea, but these work poops are very troublesome. I appreciate feedback from anyone who experiences this type of massive soft urgent poops. Thanks!!
Charly57
Newly Diagnosed & Have a Couple Questions Please
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Re: Newly Diagnosed & Have a Couple Questions Please
Hello Charly,
Welcome to the board. High-volume, super-urgent diarrhea is a trademark of this disease. For most of us, though, it's high-volume, super-urgent, watery diarrhea. The high volume comes from the characteristic of secreting water into the colon, instead of removing water, as the colon is designed to do. And the super urgency comes from the characteristic of secreting electrolytes (particularly sodium, potassium, and magnesium) into the colon, instead of absorbing electrolytes (primarily magnesium), as the colon is designed to do.
Stress can indeed affect MC, so we have to learn how to control it by whatever relaxing technique (or techniques) work/s best for us. Uncontrolled chronic stress can actually cause a relapse of the disease in individuals who have been in stable remission for months or years.
But I'm guessing that your primary issue is your diet. Budesonide doesn't work for everyone, because for some of us it's not effective enough to control the inflammation caused by certain foods in our diet. You may well be sensitive to the casein in all dairy products, because most of us are, so you're on the right track. But your main problem is almost certainly gluten, because (believe it or not), we're all sensitive to gluten, despite the negative celiac tests that many of our doctors use to mistakenly claim that we can't be gluten-sensitive. Those tests have such poor sensitivity that they miss over 90 % of celiacs, and they absolutely cannot detect the type of non-celiac gluten sensitivity that most of us have (a few of us do have celiac disease). The celiac screening tests can be used to diagnose celiac disease, but they cannot be used to rule out gluten sensitivity (regardless of doctors' incorrect claims).
But the point is, you would need to remove gluten from your diet even if the budesonide worked, because medical research shows that about 85 % of MC patients in remission because of budesonide, relapse within a few weeks when the budesonide treatment is ended. You may have other food sensitivities that the budesonide is currently masking, such as soy and chicken eggs, but those problems won't show up until the budesonide is out of your system. It's best to remove them from your diet now, so that you will remain in remission when the budesoide treatment is ended. Then you can test then, one at a time, to see if you can tolerate them.
"Mild"is not a very appropriate descriptive term for any MC cases. Some of us have fewer symptoms, and some have fewer food sensitivities than others, but the severity of symptoms has no general correlation with the pattern of inflammation in the lining of the colon. And it can be a debilitating disease, even with relatively few symptoms, because of it's seemingly unrelenting goal of destroying our confidence and self esteem.
Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.
Tex
Welcome to the board. High-volume, super-urgent diarrhea is a trademark of this disease. For most of us, though, it's high-volume, super-urgent, watery diarrhea. The high volume comes from the characteristic of secreting water into the colon, instead of removing water, as the colon is designed to do. And the super urgency comes from the characteristic of secreting electrolytes (particularly sodium, potassium, and magnesium) into the colon, instead of absorbing electrolytes (primarily magnesium), as the colon is designed to do.
Stress can indeed affect MC, so we have to learn how to control it by whatever relaxing technique (or techniques) work/s best for us. Uncontrolled chronic stress can actually cause a relapse of the disease in individuals who have been in stable remission for months or years.
But I'm guessing that your primary issue is your diet. Budesonide doesn't work for everyone, because for some of us it's not effective enough to control the inflammation caused by certain foods in our diet. You may well be sensitive to the casein in all dairy products, because most of us are, so you're on the right track. But your main problem is almost certainly gluten, because (believe it or not), we're all sensitive to gluten, despite the negative celiac tests that many of our doctors use to mistakenly claim that we can't be gluten-sensitive. Those tests have such poor sensitivity that they miss over 90 % of celiacs, and they absolutely cannot detect the type of non-celiac gluten sensitivity that most of us have (a few of us do have celiac disease). The celiac screening tests can be used to diagnose celiac disease, but they cannot be used to rule out gluten sensitivity (regardless of doctors' incorrect claims).
But the point is, you would need to remove gluten from your diet even if the budesonide worked, because medical research shows that about 85 % of MC patients in remission because of budesonide, relapse within a few weeks when the budesonide treatment is ended. You may have other food sensitivities that the budesonide is currently masking, such as soy and chicken eggs, but those problems won't show up until the budesonide is out of your system. It's best to remove them from your diet now, so that you will remain in remission when the budesoide treatment is ended. Then you can test then, one at a time, to see if you can tolerate them.
"Mild"is not a very appropriate descriptive term for any MC cases. Some of us have fewer symptoms, and some have fewer food sensitivities than others, but the severity of symptoms has no general correlation with the pattern of inflammation in the lining of the colon. And it can be a debilitating disease, even with relatively few symptoms, because of it's seemingly unrelenting goal of destroying our confidence and self esteem.
Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.