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12 weeks seems like a bad idea. I would be hurting if I got put on a 12-week schedule. I'm currently on an 8-week schedule, and my symptoms (mostly pain) often start to return after week 6. They get knocked back with the new injection 2 weeks later. I'd be in bad shape if I had to to wait an...

Elevated calprotectin means inflammation, which can often be IBD but can also be caused by other things. Celiac inflammation can raise calprotectin but usually not as high as Crohn's does. Use and especially over-use of aspirin and other NSAIDs can also cause gut inflammation as can certain...

Yes, all those are routine assessments of the state of a suspected Crohn's flare, and the colonoscopy is the most informative. Getting a first hand look at what is going on in the bowel will tell the doc a lot.

Add caffeine and he would have all four of my basic food groups.

Probably was Fluocinonide - a strong topical corticosteroid. Not the strongest but pretty strong.

1. Some doctor said it’s Crohn but I don’t think it’s Crohn and I don’t know if it’s related to the hearing loss. I have not heard of Crohn's inducing hearing loss, but who knows? Crohn's has been shown to produce a lot of extra-intestinal manifestations, so maybe it is inducing inflammation in...

Have you been tested for celiac disease? The upper GI location of the lesions tells in favor of either NSAID exposure or celiac, but you had been off the NSAIDs for a good long while (should have healed), and the highly-elevated calprotectin is not consistent with celiac. Plus, the...

Amitriptyline? I believe that is used to treat depression - to improve your mood. As far as I know it doesn't have any direct effect on Crohn's disease. Are you sure your GI didn't prescribe azathioprine? That's a more typical Crohn's medication.

It's Good news/Bad news. Having Crohn's disease is never good news, but at least you now have a much more certain path forward. And the further good news is there are many more effective treatments for Crohn's available now than there were 10 or even 5 years ago and more coming on line in the...

Just about every sort of microorganism has been implicated in one study or another in triggering Crohn's disease, including viruses: cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr Virus, and measles virus, Plus I'm sure there are more too, plus a host of bacteria and even fungi. None of them have been...

Stelara worked pretty quickly for me - a few weeks. I am currently on the standard dose of 90 mg every 8 weeks, and like you, symptoms (mostly pain in my case) start to come back during the last two weeks of the 8 week cycle. I had the trough blood level of Stelara measured once, and it was...

FCP going up is a worrying development. How are your symptoms?

Sounds like it might be time to think about getting a new doctor.

The term "mucosal atrophy" by itself often refers to the stomach more than the small bowel. I assumed the term was characterized by villous atrophy when applied to the small bowel, since that's where the villi are, but I am no expert. You should take these questions up with your doctor at...

"Ileitis terminalis" just means inflammation of the terminal ileum, and it provides no information as to what is causing the inflammation. Inflammation from UC usually starts at the rectum and progresses upstream in a continuous fashion until it stops at the colon/small bowel border. There is...

How was the fistula treated the second time? Another surgery? Also, if you did not have IBD, what do you and/or your doctor think caused the fistula in the first place?

UC and Crohn's are lumped together not only for their similarity in symptoms but also because they respond to many (but not all) of the same medications. These two diseases do have have some differences, but their similarities are so many and so strong that docs often have trouble telling...

Many GIs like to see Remicade levels in the 5 to 10 range. Some prefer higher. So an 8.3 is normally a solid number, but perhaps your doc is one of those who likes the numbers to be a bit higher, and/or perhaps the antibody level is a bit worrying, thus the need to to boost the Remicade a bit...

Entyvio is unique in terms of its mechanism of action. So any of the above medications would work in a different way. Entyvio is thought to work a bit better in the colon than the small bowel, which is perhaps why your doc started with it. Too bad it has stopped working for you.

In no particular order, here are some general impressions of the possible candidates: Remicade: proven effectiveness in closing fistulae. (Do you have a fistula?). Perhaps the strongest overall at controlling Crohn's, but also the most immunogenic - likely to trigger anti-drug antibodies...