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Biologics and stoma question

F

flowergirl

Location
florida
I have a question for those with Illeostomy. I have a huge rectovaginal fistula, and dr wants to do temp stoma and then surgery. But he said his preference is for me to be off remicade before the stoma operation? I've never heard this before? Is that standard? And what good would stoma and surgery do if I just flare up again?
 
JennaRae

JennaRae

Location
Keller,
They don't want to do surgery when your on a medication that suppresses your immune because of the risk of infection. I had to be off of my meds completely before my surgery as well. I don't have any experience with the fistula but I assume he is doing the temp stoma to give your bowels some tome to rest/heal. This would probably help with the fistula healing. Sometimes your bowels need to restart so to say. You get a temp stoma and everything gets a chance to rest and heal while not in use.
 
F

flowergirl

Location
florida
I totally understand the resting the bowels part, and I'm completely on board with that, tbh. I'm just worried that everything will flare up if I'm not on some kind of meds. And then if I flare up and everything falls apart... How did you do off meds?
 
JennaRae

JennaRae

Location
Keller,
I hear you on the mouth. Mine used to get horrible. I would have so many ulcers in there I couldn't stand it. I Used baby oragel like it was going out of style.

I did fine off the meds. I can't say wether you will or not but you should definitely ask your Doctor about this. Tell him your concerns about being off the meds and your fear of flaring.
 
F

flowergirl

Location
florida
i'm actually going for some internal medicine testing, as me and the dr feel there's something else going on and it may not even be crohn's, so i think i'm going to have to figure that out first and then get everything in the southland fixed. i had surgery 3 weeks ago and it made everything worse, so i'm not sure that jumping into any surgery right now is a good idea.
 
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