Hi All,
I'm really stressed out, I can't sleep! It's 1.30am in Sydney and Greg is having a massive flare.
The Gi tried to ween Greg off steroids about a month ago to start him on infliximab. He was having 12+bm a day bleeding etc. He was off pred for 6 days!
Anyway she also put him straight back on prednisone and gave him urgent infliximab as rescue therapy to avoid surgery. Without the results of the stool culture I requested (suggesting a possible infection)
Anyway turns out he has Cdiff again! She halted infliximab and put him on a long course vancomycin and suggested a very quick taper off pred as immunosupression will make the bacterial infection worse.
The GI wants him off steroids asap as he has puffyness and other horrible side effects.
His abdomen is swollen and now I feel worried that he might get fulminant bowel or toxic megacolon as he has pancolitis.
Greg still want's to go to work as he has so much happening at work!
The vancomycin seemed to be working slowly but now the steroid taper is getting to the lower end (in the morning he drops from 20mg to 10mg). It's like he's back at square one again.
The vancomycin taper still has a few weeks and the steroid taper has 9 days before she wants more bloods and a stool sample clear of c diff so he can go back on infliximab.
I just can't imagine him lasting that long without ending up in the ER.
I'm pretty sure at this rate he'll be needing a blood transfusion before it's all over!
I'm really stressed out, I can't sleep! It's 1.30am in Sydney and Greg is having a massive flare.
The Gi tried to ween Greg off steroids about a month ago to start him on infliximab. He was having 12+bm a day bleeding etc. He was off pred for 6 days!
Anyway she also put him straight back on prednisone and gave him urgent infliximab as rescue therapy to avoid surgery. Without the results of the stool culture I requested (suggesting a possible infection)
Anyway turns out he has Cdiff again! She halted infliximab and put him on a long course vancomycin and suggested a very quick taper off pred as immunosupression will make the bacterial infection worse.
The GI wants him off steroids asap as he has puffyness and other horrible side effects.
His abdomen is swollen and now I feel worried that he might get fulminant bowel or toxic megacolon as he has pancolitis.
Greg still want's to go to work as he has so much happening at work!
The vancomycin seemed to be working slowly but now the steroid taper is getting to the lower end (in the morning he drops from 20mg to 10mg). It's like he's back at square one again.
The vancomycin taper still has a few weeks and the steroid taper has 9 days before she wants more bloods and a stool sample clear of c diff so he can go back on infliximab.
I just can't imagine him lasting that long without ending up in the ER.
I'm pretty sure at this rate he'll be needing a blood transfusion before it's all over!