Is it a Colitis Relapse Or Not?

Everyone who is diagnosed with colitis knows that the chances of a relapse happening sometime in the future are probably as certain as night follows day. Yet whilst this is a known, exactly when is unknown. Can anyone who is diagnosed with colitis write down in their diary when their next relapse will occur? If they could, they should sell the secret and retire to their very own tropical island.

Until such a day arrives, colitis sufferers have to continue to live their lives as normally as possible yet always at the back of their mind there is the thought that a relapse might appear from nowhere. After their first attack, it is not unusual to proceed to have more relapses over many years interspersed with longer periods of remission. Yet it should actually be possible, after a certain period of time, to start seeing a pattern emerge both in the timing of when the symptoms happened and in addition, any evidence to suggest the reason behind their occurrence.

In addition to this, there is a possibility to also establish a timescale to determine when a sufferer may be vulnerable to a sudden appearance of the symptoms. These can be very short in timescale which can last, thankfully, for only perhaps a day or even shorter period of time. Once again, it is very important and beneficial to try and attempt to understand the reason behind why they happened with an eye to at least trying to avoid future circumstances that are in any way similar.

In practical terms, what does it mean for someone who has unfortunately been diagnosed with colitis? If newly diagnosed, as there is no history of patterns of attack, the sufferer can increase their knowledge by finding fellow sufferers and learning of different timescales of relapses and how they happened. And for those that have suffered a few relapses, a pattern could well have emerged on which to make a reasonable judgement as to the likely pattern of future relapses both in their timing and ferocity. Is this fail safe? No it is not but it can offer a reasonable degree of forecasting and is something to fall back on for personal use.

It is important to understand that if a relapse was experienced in the past and the sufferer is in the midst of a current one, it is wrong to assume that after the same length of time in the future another one will occur. The last thing a sufferer should do is create unnecessary stress for them over something that may not happen. The information gathered should be used with caution. The longer a sufferer has been diagnosed, the greater the information there is to hand in order to attempt to create an early warning system of when an attack could appear.

With colitis in general, there are unfortunately a lot of unknowns and the chances of the likelihood of when another relapse is due is certainly one of them. It is beneficial for the sufferer to gain as much knowledge from others and then to try and see if a pattern is emerging for their attacks and, probably more importantly, be knowledgeably informed of how to manage it as effectively as possible.