Going back again?

So, since they last post things have gone a little worse.

I had diarrhoea three times in a week, and is seems that there is some mucus in it too, but nothing incredibly obvious. I don’t know whether this is due to something dodgy I ate, (it was surely the case at the beginning of August, but now we are in the second half) or it is the colitis coming back. The thing is, it isn’t just diarrhoea all the way, it starts normal and then towards the end of the bowel movement it goes softer and softer till turning into some mushy mixture or into diarrhoea.

Other symptoms seems to have got a little worse, in that I began to feel a bit more tired and sluggish than usual, plus that weird feeling in my legs – the usual one you know, that sort of tiredness and heaviness - and that happened at the same time as the diarrhoea, which is this week and the one before. At least in two occasions I noticed some foam in my stools too. My stomach also feels, er, different, I’d say uncomfortable at times. Food-wise, not much to say: I did feel a bit more adventurous with my diet, had a few chocolate biscuits, but I don't know whether this has had a negative impact or not, I can't really say. I’m trying to be optimistic, I’m sticking to my 2g of mesalazine still, as I don’t really want to go back to 4g as yet, surely not without talking to my GP. The problem is that I’m off on holiday as of tomorrow, which invariably means a change in diet anyway. All I could say is that I’ll try to be as good as I can, possibly avoiding alcohol altogether as I did for the wedding at the beginning of August, hoping that this diarrhoea goes away completely. I can only wait and see, really, nothing else I can do.

Last week I’ve also updated my bowel habits spreadsheet, adding the mucus-free days per month and the average number of bowel movements per month, and I have to say that was quite an interesting reading. I'm not really in the position to say that this data has medical significance, but I can say that when my colitis was at its peak, in april 2015, I have experienced the highest number of bowel movements, with the average being 2.53 compared to 1.35 in December 2014 (still no mesalazine) and 1.16 in July 2015 after one and a half month of 4g mesalazine. Let’s have a look at this mucus-free and bowel movement stats briefly here:

December 2014:
Average bowel movement: 1.35483871
Mucus-free days: 1

January 2015:
Average bowel movement: 1.35483871
Mucus-free days: 0

February:
Average bowel movement: 2.035714286
Mucus-free days: 0

March:
Average bowel movement: 2.225806452
Mucus-free days: 1

April:
Average bowel movement: 2.533333333
Mucus-free days: 3

May (first month of 4g mesalazine):
Average bowel movement: 1.419354839
Mucus-free days: 0

June (second month of 4g mesalazine):
Average bowel movement: 1.033333333
Mucus-free days: 16

July (third month of 4g mesalazine then down to 2g):
Average bowel movement: 1.161290323
Mucus-free days: 20

Here is a link to the updated spreadsheet.