I was going to ask the same thing as Creepy Lurker about the biologics.
I was originally diagnosed with UC until a really bad flare a year ago that hospitalized me. I had a second sigmoidoscopy and the Doctor said it looked more like Crohn's but I'd need an MRI to be sure. That was on a Friday and the MRI was scheduled for the following Wednesday by which time I'd gotten worse because a) the young, newly qualified, non-GI, foetus of a Doctor on-call that evening (NEVER get admitted to hospital just before the weekend lol!) prescribed 1 shot of Hydrocortisone per day instead of 4 (cheers for that), and b) after it was corrected I barely responded to it anyway. By the day of my MRI I was very sick and passing LOADS of blood, and was under the impression from what the Doctor said that with UC, high doses of Hydrocortisone are basically your last shot. I overheard him say to a colleague they might have to get the surgeon to come and have a word with me, and I was terrified.
The next day, though, the MRI confirmed it was in fact Crohn's and suddenly I was offered Infliximab/Remicade on the Thursday evening. I was home by Sunday afternoon and symptom free a couple of weeks later. I may be wrong but it was my understanding that if the MRI had confirmed UC, I wouldn't have been offered a biologic (I SWEAR I've read about people with UC using them though, I don't see why they wouldn't have the same effect). Anyway, if it's CD you have you are surely entitled to them and definitely want to try them out, I hear 80-90% of people respond to them.
And if they operate based on a diagnosis of UC, won't they deem you cured afterwards? If it's CD it could just crop up again afterwards. Make sure you fight your corner on this, you definitely want to be sure that if you resort to surgery, it's because it's definitely your only option
Anyway, hope you’re on the mend and feel nothing but better each day!
