Question: I have Ulcerative Colitis. I have a question about my condition.

I just got back from the doctor and I didn't feel like was able to ask him all my questions, could you help me out?

I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis two years ago. The first flare was in May two years ago, my second flare was in May last year, and I am currently on medication for my third flare that started last month, also May. Symptoms seem to start within two weeks of each other on a yearly frequency in May.

I had some mild lingering problems before I was diagnosed, and (before diagnoses of the flare) they found erythamia, polyps and mild inflammation. After my first flare they found pancolitus and ulcers. Prednisone resolved my first two flares effectively and seems to be abating this one as well.

Now my main questions are about the etiology of the flares themselves. Before I was diagnosed I was on the toilet and I was constipated (I believe that was caused by the oatmeal I had been eating everyday because I thought it was good for me.) I was straining and I popped an internal hemorrhoid and there was blood in my stool. The blood eventually went away and I went to a doctor to talk about it.

Now since the time I popped the hemorrhoid it always felt like in my guts there was something not right like I could feel the thing popped inside. When I move around in certain ways it almost feels like it "rubs" inside.

My first flare happened the day after I had a heavy backpack on with a waistband that put a lot of pressure on that "rubbing" feeling inside. My second flare and this flare happen after about two months of working out regularly. I remember before my second flare I was running on the treadmill and being like "I have to stop because my guts don't feel right". The same thing happens when I do anything where I have to bend at the waist, like squats or deadlifts. It feels like it rubs those popped out intestines and causes distress.

All my flares happen in May because when the temperatures warm up I get motivated to work out regularly.

Now clearly I have inflammation and the UC is latent inside of me. But it seems to be the more direct reason for the flares are when those popped out intestines rub inside me. My theory is that this causes my already mildly inflamed guts to actually become a full fledged flare.

Does this make sense, or am I off base?

So why could I feel from the exact moment I started bleeding, then when I got UC during flares and not during flares, and even right now as I type this. Could it be a hernia?