Hello! I hope you are all doing well or on the path to recovery!
For about the past year (essentially since giving birth), I have had a dull ache in my RLQ. I have had two colonoscopies (went back for polyps), two CTEs, and an appendectomy (only surgery ever). The appendectomy removed almost all tenderness, but the dull ache remains. The scans show: Stable wall thickening and mucosal hyperenhancement involving the terminal ileum. This and my colonoscopy make my doctor believe I am still in remission. My doctor has put me on a budesonide taper, saying that if it helps, then it is active inflammation, and if it does not help, then it is scar tissue pain. I am a little concerned because some people don't really respond to budesonide I have read, and this seems not ideal for making serious treatment decisions.
I worry that:
For about the past year (essentially since giving birth), I have had a dull ache in my RLQ. I have had two colonoscopies (went back for polyps), two CTEs, and an appendectomy (only surgery ever). The appendectomy removed almost all tenderness, but the dull ache remains. The scans show: Stable wall thickening and mucosal hyperenhancement involving the terminal ileum. This and my colonoscopy make my doctor believe I am still in remission. My doctor has put me on a budesonide taper, saying that if it helps, then it is active inflammation, and if it does not help, then it is scar tissue pain. I am a little concerned because some people don't really respond to budesonide I have read, and this seems not ideal for making serious treatment decisions.
I worry that:
- If it is actually inflammation and we just follow pain management as she has suggested for scar tissue, the disease will progress.
- If it is just scar tissue and we add azathioprine to my current Remicade (due to past fistula in TI, doesn't want me to go off Remicade), I am putting myself at increased cancer risks when unnecessary since that would not treat scar tissue.