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Is This A Flare?

Hi everyone,

I have had Crohn's for about 20 yrs now and for the past 10 i have been flare and pain free since being put on Purinethol.

The past month I have had what I am thinking are 2 small flares about 2 weeks apart - currently I am still in the second one.

I am not in alot of super pain but have had watery bowel movements since Sunday and what feels like alot of moving around in my upper abdomen - i also get this sharp pain amost feels like a spasm that only last about 5-10 seconds then goes away - this pain comes every 2-3 hours but today has slowed down to maybe every 4-5 hours.

I also have a HUGE abdomen and it looks like im pregnant it so swollen!

I was just wondering does this sound like a Crohns flare? Its been so long since i have had any trouble that i forget what a flare feels like.

It just feels strange that my crohns is in my lower right side but this pain and cramping is in my upper abdomen not realy my lower area is that normal for a flare to be not in the area where your Crohns is?

Anyone have any answers for me?

Thank you in advance
Cathy
 
The fleeting pain, bloating and loose stools are key factors right now.

It is of my own opinion (though I think this can be subjective based on how severely scarred a patient is after long flaring and years of disease) that, barring surgery-induced differences, if you have symptoms of any kind beyond normal BM's (for "normal" people), it's a "flare-up". Because you had a streak of "flawlessness" (flawless for you)... living without signs of the disease, by default, that nets you the "f-word" now, and you're flaring. I personally believe that there is remission, and flaring, no in-between, and there are just many degrees of flaring, mild, severe, moderate, etc...But because science isn't at a full understanding of this disease, that's up for interpretation.

Flaring and Remission are two statuses that I've started to think differ from patient to patient at times though, because one may never be 100% symptom-free with how science can currently treat Crohn's Disease, but they can be maybe 97%, for example. And that is then their new "remission", unless science can figure a way to push the extra 3%....But then again, who is the one quantifying that 97%, and do they know everything science will ever know about Crohn's by the end of time? Since that answer is obviously no, I'd like to think that everyone can achieve some version of 100%, but "good enough for now" is also acceptable I suppose.

That's just my own interpretation from my own experience/research.
 
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