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Officially diagnosed

I posted a few weeks ago about my first scopes. Anyway, everything went perfect with the scopes and my doctor took plenty of biopsies. My TI was pretty inflamed (I vaguely remember seeing the pictures, I was still half out from the dope). And there was some narrowing, he couldn't get scope all the way in from what I understand. I don't remember a ton because I was still half out of it.
He said he had already spoken to a surgeon and they both agreed it didn't seem necessary at the moment. So I guess that's good news.
All the biopsies came back fine except for the pretty obvious inflamed TI. I am happy about that. However, he wants to start me on remicade. I was trying to avoid some of the heavier treatments right off the bat, but I guess I'll do what ever he thinks is best.
Anyway, thanks for the responses I've gotten from people on here and the resources this site provides.
 

SarahBear

Moderator
Location
Charleston,
:hug: I'm glad you're happy to have a diagnosis and thinking positively!

It's great that surgery isn't needed. Hopefully the Remicade does the trick. :) Were you given any steroids to reduce the inflammation?
 
It is good to be diagnosed but of course it can be scary not knowing what is ahead. It sounds like you have done some research already and knew Remicade may be a possibility.

I thought the write up on Remicade on this site was very helpful (wiki section).

Have you been put on any other meds? My daughters GI said she had to try other meds before Remicade: Asacol, Mercaptopurine and Prednisone. She said if your body responds to these, then Remicade would not be needed.

Wishing you the best and someone is always here willing to listen or help.
 
My GI doctor discussed Remicade with me actually before doing colonoscopy/endoscopy a few weeks ago. He said if it came back as Crohns he would want to start me on Remicade. I've tried to do some research both here and some scientific articles discussing top-down vs bottom-up therapy, but I can't tell you I've come to a definite conclusion as to which is better. It seems as though the more serious the disease is from the onset, or from diagnosis, the more the research points towards top-down, to sort of hit the disease hard and stop the progression. Also, some of the bottom tier meds like pentasa do very little if anything for severe crohns, so it'd be a waste. The argument for bottom-up I guess would be if the disease isn't so severe, maybe bottom tier meds will work (maybe not and you scale up), but if you were to start with Remicade maybe you'd exhaust your available meds much sooner...as usually over time people will build antibodies to the biologics (some quickly, some after years and years of use). Though, new medicines are being introduced often, and they seem to be even better than before. If medicines aren't working, and diet isn't working, usually that's when it comes to surgery.
 
I wasn't given any steroids for the inflammation. I go the 27th for the follow-up so I'm going to be asking him plenty of questions. And lustforlife, that was one of my concerns; starting it so soon if it would exhaust my resources down the line. I'll see what he says when I go I guess. Thanks for the responses.
 
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