Hi -
I've been away for a year. At my last post, our GI wanted to start Remicade in my 6yo son (at that time, he was only on Pentasa and had a course of steroids previous to that). I just wasn't comfortable with him being so young. We got into U of M for another opinion in December 2015. We decided to put him on Imuran in January right when he turned 7. He seemed to be doing well on it, but mid-July, the stomach pain started again, and became more and more frequent. He also very recently started having loose stools. My son was diagnosed with gastro-duodenal Crohn's with a small area of the cecum involved. His Imuran level was perfect, but with the symptoms, and FC back up to 643, we redid the scopes and MRE 10/28. His stomach is full of erosions and ulcerations, leading into the duodenum. He has new ulcerations in the entire ascending colon, splenic flecture, cecum, and rectum. The MRE showed that an area at the end of the small intestines is also involved. So, he is most definitely not in remission. Time for Remicade. Now I second guess our original dr's opinion, but it's hard to hear that the Remicade may only work for a certain period of time, and then what? My son is only 7. I keep telling myself that there are new things in the pipelines, but it's very hard for me not to consider the future. For now, we are going to try taking it day by day and hope the Remicade works for a long time. Any Remicade advice or what to expect would be appreciated. BTW, dr wants to keep the Imuran on for at least 6 months to try to prevent antibody prevention. Thanks for reading this long post!!
I've been away for a year. At my last post, our GI wanted to start Remicade in my 6yo son (at that time, he was only on Pentasa and had a course of steroids previous to that). I just wasn't comfortable with him being so young. We got into U of M for another opinion in December 2015. We decided to put him on Imuran in January right when he turned 7. He seemed to be doing well on it, but mid-July, the stomach pain started again, and became more and more frequent. He also very recently started having loose stools. My son was diagnosed with gastro-duodenal Crohn's with a small area of the cecum involved. His Imuran level was perfect, but with the symptoms, and FC back up to 643, we redid the scopes and MRE 10/28. His stomach is full of erosions and ulcerations, leading into the duodenum. He has new ulcerations in the entire ascending colon, splenic flecture, cecum, and rectum. The MRE showed that an area at the end of the small intestines is also involved. So, he is most definitely not in remission. Time for Remicade. Now I second guess our original dr's opinion, but it's hard to hear that the Remicade may only work for a certain period of time, and then what? My son is only 7. I keep telling myself that there are new things in the pipelines, but it's very hard for me not to consider the future. For now, we are going to try taking it day by day and hope the Remicade works for a long time. Any Remicade advice or what to expect would be appreciated. BTW, dr wants to keep the Imuran on for at least 6 months to try to prevent antibody prevention. Thanks for reading this long post!!