- Joined
- Jun 6, 2010
- Messages
- 31
This post's possibly going to be a long one because I want to give the whoel story so please bear with me...
I was diagnosed with Crohns a couple years ago now and since then I have been on Imuran, Budesonide, and most recently, Cimzia. I have not been on Cimzia long, I have only taken the load up doses and one of the monthly doses so I am at around 2 months in.
Starting around Christmas I began to experience constant, significant nausea. The nausea would get worse prior to a bowel movement, and back off a bit after one. I had thought maybe I was getting impacted so I used some laxatives to clean me out, but that basically made the nausea extremely bad. I have not vomited, but I definitely feel like I am going to.
I spoke with my GI regarding it and he prescribed Promethazine. I have been taking this and it is providing minimal improvement. He indicated he is going to switch my prescription to Zofran to see if that provides any improvement. I have landed in the ER because of this due to the fact that I was having a hard time eating or drinking anything so got fairly dehydrated. I was checked via CT for an obstruction while I was there but none was found, however they did notice narrowing in my small intestine. I knew that was there because my GI previously indicated I had a stricture and that my ileocecal valve was severely inflamed and was pretty much closed up on my colonoscopy in October. He couldn't get the scope through and had to dilate that portion of my small intestine, which is what led to the Cimzia.
I have had 3 colonoscopies in the last 12 months, all requiring baloon dilation to open that stricture up. SInce then I have lost the GI that was treating me as he left the university. I have now been reassigned to another one, who I'm not sure I completely trust at this point. He wants to do another scope so that he can have a look around for himself, but also wants to seriously talk about surgery now. Last week when I spoke to him he wanted to try Remicade. He never spoke to me first about doing the scope at the end of the month, I was just up and scheduled for it. It seems like this guy is just kind of all over the place...
I guess what I am kind of wondering is if anyone has any opinions on trying Remicade before surgery, even after trying Cimzia. Is it worth it, or should I seriously be looking at surgery? I'm just not confident enough at this point that surgery is my only avenue, but at the same time I can't keep going on like I am. This nausea and continued pain is definitely affecting my home life and my work life and I can't keep having it. Sometimes I think a second opinion is in order, but I've had such a hard time finding a good GI that I just hate going through the process again, especially since I lost a good one.
Thank you ahead of time for any thoughts/opinions on this.
I was diagnosed with Crohns a couple years ago now and since then I have been on Imuran, Budesonide, and most recently, Cimzia. I have not been on Cimzia long, I have only taken the load up doses and one of the monthly doses so I am at around 2 months in.
Starting around Christmas I began to experience constant, significant nausea. The nausea would get worse prior to a bowel movement, and back off a bit after one. I had thought maybe I was getting impacted so I used some laxatives to clean me out, but that basically made the nausea extremely bad. I have not vomited, but I definitely feel like I am going to.
I spoke with my GI regarding it and he prescribed Promethazine. I have been taking this and it is providing minimal improvement. He indicated he is going to switch my prescription to Zofran to see if that provides any improvement. I have landed in the ER because of this due to the fact that I was having a hard time eating or drinking anything so got fairly dehydrated. I was checked via CT for an obstruction while I was there but none was found, however they did notice narrowing in my small intestine. I knew that was there because my GI previously indicated I had a stricture and that my ileocecal valve was severely inflamed and was pretty much closed up on my colonoscopy in October. He couldn't get the scope through and had to dilate that portion of my small intestine, which is what led to the Cimzia.
I have had 3 colonoscopies in the last 12 months, all requiring baloon dilation to open that stricture up. SInce then I have lost the GI that was treating me as he left the university. I have now been reassigned to another one, who I'm not sure I completely trust at this point. He wants to do another scope so that he can have a look around for himself, but also wants to seriously talk about surgery now. Last week when I spoke to him he wanted to try Remicade. He never spoke to me first about doing the scope at the end of the month, I was just up and scheduled for it. It seems like this guy is just kind of all over the place...
I guess what I am kind of wondering is if anyone has any opinions on trying Remicade before surgery, even after trying Cimzia. Is it worth it, or should I seriously be looking at surgery? I'm just not confident enough at this point that surgery is my only avenue, but at the same time I can't keep going on like I am. This nausea and continued pain is definitely affecting my home life and my work life and I can't keep having it. Sometimes I think a second opinion is in order, but I've had such a hard time finding a good GI that I just hate going through the process again, especially since I lost a good one.
Thank you ahead of time for any thoughts/opinions on this.
