Understanding and Treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease Washington DC

Individuals who are newly diagnosed with ulcerative colitis may be upset and confused to learn that they have a diagnosis in the category of inflammatory bowel disease Washington DC.  In order to better understand how to manage this type of diagnosis, it is helpful to know a little bit more about how different variations of ulcerative colitis might look.

Ulcerative Colitis and IBD Treatment DC

Not all diagnoses of ulcerative colitis are created equal.  Inflammatory bowel disease doctors DC have categories that help to illustrate the severity of individual cases of ulcerative colitis.

• Ulcerative colitis is considered to be mild if it includes up to four incidents of loose stools per day, some blood in the stools and mild abdominal pain.
• Moderate ulcerative colitis can include four to six loose stools per day, some blood in these stools and moderate abdominal pain.  At the moderate stage, enough blood is being lost to result in testing that is clinically positive for anemia.
• When ulcerative colitis becomes severe, it can be expected that more than six bloody stools per day will occur.  Anemia will be present, along with other symptoms like a fever and a rapid heart rate.
• Potentially, ulcerative colitis can be fatal in the very severe stage.  This is also called the fulminant stage.  Loose, bloody stools may be almost constant, with a minimum of ten occurrences per day.  The abdomen becomes tender and distended.  Anemia may have progressed to the stage where a blood transfusion is necessary.  Fatal complications can include death from excessive blood loss, a perforated colon, or a very serious infection that becomes systemic.  It goes without saying that the patient is suffering greatly and fully disabled at this point in time. These factors make the need for IBD treatment DC absolutely necessary.

Treatment for ulcerative colitis depends partly on the stage of the disease.  Earlier stages may be well controlled with over-the-counter medications and some dietary and lifestyle adjustments.  Disease in the severe and fulminant stages may require surgery to remove all or part of the large colon in order to stop the blood loss and remove infected tissue.  Lifestyle changes and compliance to treatment in the earliest stages may lessen the chances of the disease advancing to life-threatening stages.