What Is Colitis? (Besides bad gut, broken gut, chopped liver gut . . )
Put simply, colitis is inflammation, often with bleeding ulcers, of the colon (large intestine), and only the colon. This differs from Crohn’s disease, which is spotty inflammation anywhere in the digestive tract from the mouth to the anus. Both colitis and Crohn’s are forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) which is different from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I remember the difference because my bowel is inflamed (chopped liver), not irritable. I wish it was just irritated!
This is from healthline.com, describing the most common colitis. I have ulcerative colitis, which is considered an autoimmune disease. Specifically, I have pancolitis, which is when the entire colon is affected:
1. Ulcerative colitis
UC is a lifelong disease that causes inflammation and bleeding ulcers within
the inner lining of your large intestine. It generally begins in the rectum and
spreads to the colon.
UC is the most commonly diagnosed type of colitis. It occurs when the immune system overreacts to bacteria and other substances in the digestive tract, but experts don’t know why this happens.
2. Microscopic colitis
Microscopic colitis is a medical condition that a doctor can only identify by
looking at a tissue sample of the colon under a microscope.
(Other types of colitis are mentioned on healthline's website.)
https://www.healthline.com/health/colitis
What are the symptoms?
Mucus (which is white) and/or blood with bowel movements. Not just blood on the toilet paper or a few drops in the water, but blood turning all the water in the bowl red.
Stool going from solid to soft, to loose, to mush, to liquid diarrhea. Again, often with blood.
Frequency of bowel movements. Over time you start going more and more. At the height of my initial flare, before I was diagnosed, I was going about every hour and a half.
Urgency of bowel movements. You have to go NOW, not ten seconds from now.
Pain. Cramping. Anything from general stomach achiness to excruciating pain from the sternum to the pubic area and all the way from left to right. Sometimes it feels like a ball with four inch spikes is slowly stabbing its way through your intestines. Other times it feels like your stomach is going to explode, and frankly, you wish it would.
Weight loss. I lost about 20% of my body weight in a month.
Fatigue. This may be a hard one to gauge because seniors sometimes deal with fatigue problems already.
Some people may develop a fever. Having hot flashes from menopause may make it difficult to tell.
Here are additional symptoms that I experienced at my worst, but were never listed on "colitis" symptoms lists:
Metallic, acidy taste in mouth. This was so bad that I could only eat a few bites of food and that was it. It made even bottled water taste horrible. Rinsing my mouth or brushing my teeth only brought a few seconds of relief. The taste was always present.
Loss of appetite and dehydration. If food doesn't taste good, you are not going to want to eat. But even when the metallic taste left, I would eat something and ask my husband, "Is it just me or does this not taste right?" His reply was usually, "Nope, it's just you." Dehydration usually occurs with diarrhea and vomiting. With me, even water tasted nasty.
Nausea, which also causes loss of appetite. When I was at my worst, I was constantly nauseous. The doctor prescribed anti-nausea medicine, which helped.
Throwing up. I occasionally threw up while sitting on the toilet. Usually it happened towards the end, after my intestines had emptied out. Sometimes it happened shortly after getting off the toilet. It seemed to happen only after an especially painful bowel movement. I don't know if the throwing up was caused by the smell of filling the toilet, my body's reaction to the pain it just went through, or something else.
Muscle weakness. This could be because of losing so much weight so quickly or my body not being able to absorb nutrients or both.
Hemorrhoids. My general surgeon first diagnosed me with hemorrhoids. He wasn't wrong. I did have hemorrhoids, but they were mild. I didn't feel them or have any symptoms from them. Also, it made sense that I had at least some hemorrhoids because I spent so much gosh darn time on the toilet! But it didn't explain the great amount of blood in the toilet. It would be seven more months before a gastroenterologist diagnosed me with ulcerative colitis. So just be aware that hemorrhoids, WITH other symptoms, could be an indicator of an intestinal problem.
Heartburn. I've had heartburn on and off most of my life, mostly off, but it became worse during my initial flare and required medication to control.
Difficulty walking, sitting down, standing up, getting in or out of bed. Unable to drive. While riding in a vehicle even small bumps in the road caused stomach pain.
Vertigo. I was sitting on the toilet one time and it felt like that small space started uncontrollably spinning. I became extremely, badly nauseous, like I was on an ever-increasing-in-speed carnival ride that was going round and round. I pushed my hands on the walls for steadiness because I swear I was going to be flung off the toilet at any minute. It lasted only a few minutes, but those minutes were awful. It happened again a a few days later after waking from a nap.
Low protein numbers. Once I started feeling better, I could not get enough meat!
Anemia. I had blood coming out of me for a year. Not a big surprise my iron was very low.
Muscle cramps. At first it was in my legs. But then the muscles in my neck started to cramp. Talk about pain! Because it was in my neck my whole body was involved and would contort. And it didn't just last for a few minutes. It would often last for ten to fifteen minutes, and then after a five minute rest, happen again.
Rapid heartbeat. I don't know how long I had it, but at the time of my colonoscopy I was showing a rapid heartbeat that concerned the nurses.
I could not lay on my left side. As soon as I tried, I had to run to the bathroom. I could lay on my back or my right side, but not my left. I know, it's strange.
Article: Healthcare Costs: The Chronic Illness 'Symptom' Doctors Don't Warn You About
Does diet cause colitis? Can diet cure colitis?
The answer is no and NO! I’ve been scouring the internet trying to find people with colitis who share their experiences online as they are the best people to get correct information. It is amazing how many of them developed colitis even though they were often athletic, involved in sports, and healthy eaters. Besides, if bad diet caused colitis, millions of more people would have it.
Foods can trigger a flare, but foods DO NOT trigger the disease itself. What causes colitis is currently unknown.
Diet can manage colitis symptoms but cannot cure it. There is no known cure. However, because colitis is more prevalent in developed nations, there is research on whether something in the digestive tract is killing off good bacteria and what affect parasites have on preventing colitis. They are also experimenting with "fecal" transplants. (Is the proper reaction to that, “Oh, that’s interesting,” or “Icky, gross!”)
When does ulcerative colitis show up?
Almost always between the ages of 15 and 30, with occasionally between 60 and 80. I think this, and negative test results, were some of the reasons my doctor was confused by my symptoms. I was approaching 60, but not there yet.
As much as this has affected me, I cannot imagine dealing with this as a teenager or a parent with young children. My heart goes out to those people in every way.
Can a person die from colitis?
Ninety-nine percent of the time, no. But in my reading of other people's experiences online, I am astounded at how many of them say, "I almost died." Sometimes it happens before they get a diagnosis, sometimes after, while they're trying to find a medication that works. Sometimes it occurs not long after symptoms first appear and sometimes several years down the road.
With that in mind, if you have blood and liquids continually coming out of you, lose weight because it’s hard to eat, cannot sleep at night because of constantly running to the toilet, become weak, lethargic, dehydrated, and malnourished, and are not treated, your body will start to shut down. Colitis also increases a person’s chances for colon cancer, so that means if you have colitis, there will be lots of colonoscopies in your future! (Ugh . . .)
You can have a normal life.
Okay, I keep hearing this, but I’m not there yet. I’m realizing that getting to remission can take a long, long time. And I have to keep reminding myself that, although I can have a normal life, I don’t know what that means yet. My life may be normal, but it won’t be the same.
Healing (remission, not curing) the colon is not easy or quick. If I were riding a bike and fell, scraping my arm, I would clean the wound, apply antibiotic, wrap it up, and rest it for a while. My colon is just as damaged, but I can’t stop using it. (Although in extreme cases, a person with colitis may be put in the hospital and fed through a feeding tube to give the colon a rest.) Every colitis patient is different and figuring it out is part of the process.
So . . . patience, patience, patience!
© Colitis Senioritis 2022
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