Have you ever heard of a disease called ulcerative colitis? Ulcerative colitis is a disease that can cause inflammation to the innermost lining of your colon and also rectum. Besides that, it can also cause ulcers to these parts of the colon. Usually, this disease can be caused due to genetic inheritance and for now there is still no cure for this disease. However, people with this disease will often get treatment that aims to decrease the symptoms. What are the symptoms of ulcerative colitis? In this Doctoroncall‘s article, we will aim to provide you with all the information that you need to know regarding ulcerative colitis. Continue reading to increase your knowledge about this disease.
Symptoms of Ulcerative Colitis
The signs and symptoms of ulcerative colitis will vary depending on its severity. Besides, it can also vary from person to person. If you think you have any of these mentioned symptoms and you highly suspect that you are having an ulcerative colitis disease, it is highly recommended for you to quickly meet your doctor as soon as possible because if it is left untreated, it can give rise to more complications in the future. The symptoms of ulcerative colitis are as follow:
- Diarrhea. This is one of the most common symptoms for ulcerative colitis. However, the diarrhea experienced by the patient is most likely to be accompanied by blood or pus.
- Abdominal pain or cramping. This usually happens due to the effect of inflammation and ulcer in the colon. The pain and cramp will depend on the position of the ulcer in the colon.
- Rectal pain. If the ulcer is at the rectum, then the patient will likely experience rectal pain.
- Rectal bleeding. As mentioned above, this is also due to the ulcer at the rectum that tends to inflame and give out blood.
- Urgency to defecate. This is also due to the inflammation at the rectum. However, most of the patients will have a problem with defecation even though they feel the urgency.
- Weight loss. Continuous problems with diarrhea will cause a person to lose weight since there is not enough nutrition being absorbed into the body cells.
- Fatigue. This is also one of the common symptoms for this disease.
- Fever. Sometimes, it can also be accompanied by fever.
- Failure to grow. This is particularly true for children that are having ulcerative colitis. They will have problems growing up simply because their colon cannot absorb enough nutrition.
As mentioned above, having some of the symptoms might indicate that you are having ulcerative colitis. If you think that you suffered from this disease, it is a good idea to meet your doctor as quickly as you can. This is because failure to treat this disease at an early stage might give some complicated complications in the future. Upon meeting your doctor, he might suggest some life-long treatment for you.
In general, there are two types of treatment that you can choose from. It is either medication or surgery. For mild to moderate cases, taking lifelong medication is recommended since there are less side effects this way. However, for some cases that are deemed as severe or serious, your doctor might recommend you to undergo a surgery. The type of surgery that will be conducted will depend on the type and severity of the disease itself. In some cases, where surgery is not possible, the doctor will create an opening on your stomach called stoma. This will be the place where you defecate and excrete your waste products.
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