What do you define remission as?

[klowee]

I have been on Humira for 12 weeks now and I am down to 7.5mg on my prednisone(the lowest I have ever been since starting last May). This past week I have had increased diarrhea and iritis flare up in both of my eyes again.

Do any of you see wax and wane in respect to the Crohn's even while on Humira and just ride it out. Or do you see a complete absence of symptoms?

I felt good for a few weeks and I was hopeful that meant I was in remission, but with the Iritis I am concerned.

Any thoughts?

 

[chrisnsteph1022]

I define remission as the complete absence of symptoms. I was in remission for 7 years and had D maybe once a week, which I attributed to IBS. No blood or pain. If you're having symptoms on a regular basis, I wouldn't consider it remission.

 

[littlemissh]

IBD guidelines say you are not in true remission unless you are off steroids,but I would have thought from a patients point of view everyones idea of remission is different!

 

[e13 boy]

Remission is 100% freedom of ALL cd symptoms

For over 20 years i went from severe ~ mild ~ severe ~ mild ~ severe.
A never ending hopeless cycle of gut pain,Dreaded D,Anemia,Weight loss,
Erythema nodosum......Steroids,Azathioprine,6mp,pentasa never gave me remission.....The two resections,two fistulectomys & cutting out 5 abcesses took me from severe back to mild/moderate - then the cycle started again.

I found 100% remission by taking Serovera AMP - Thank god.

e13 boy Serovera AMP Loperamide(due to short bowel)
21 yrs of CD 9 operations
failed meds Steroids,Aza,6mp,Pentasa

 

[My Butt Hurts]

For me, remission is being able to live as normally as I can.
I consider myself to be in remission right now, but never for one day forget I have Crohn's. I don't think I will ever be completely normal, but right now I am at about 97%.
My worst symptoms are controlled right now, thanks to Remicade, but I still have occassional issues.

 

[klowee]

Thank you all for your responses. Those are the answers I was looking for. I think that I will be scheduling an appointment with my GI to discuss what seems to be a regression. Sigh.

 

[ameslouise]

For me, remission would be absence of symptoms - without any steroids. Haven't gotten there yet and am starting to think it is an unattainable dream for me.

Good luck - maybe you can kick the Humira up to 1x week.

- Amy

 

[tflock]

Remission for me is when you would no longer have any immediate symptoms of CD. I am in what I call remission because I am basically the same as I was before I had the disease. I still get indigestion or very mild pain every now and then, but remission should be not having any symptoms and being able to live your life again and not plan everything that you do around Crohns.

 

[Beast2351]

Remission for Crohn's is kind of a tricky term to me, but I would probably say that it would have to be an absence of all symptoms, which honestly at least to me seems like it'll never happen. However, I'm still really happy with my health right now, as my symptoms are as minimal as they've been.
Prior to my surgeries in summer of '09 i was feeling TERRIBLE daily. Since being released from the hospital I have been on Humira (worked good, but had 1 really bad side effect which was horrible intestinal spasms) and now Cimzia (only had the spasms once, and i was recenetly prescribed meds which will hopefully help if it happens again). I've been doing great on the Cimzia and will only get pain once in a while, and not nearly as bad as i used to. Whether or not I'll ever be in "remission", i don't know, but I wouldn't complain if i could keep my crohn's at the current level it's at right now for the rest of my life, given that i know of how bad it can get.

 

[Chuck2008]

Remission is defined by doctors as having a CAI (Crohns activity index) of less than a certain number. If you do a google search you can find a questionaire online to calculate your crohns activity index. This index considers you in remissions when your symptoms are mild but definately still present, you can have some diahrea, a little blood in your stool etc and still be considered in remission by that standard.

Personally, I consider remission as feeling the same as I did before I was diagnosed with the disease. If you had irritibal bowel symptoms, occasional diarrhea etc before crohns, then you should probably still have that now. Right now I consider myself in remission because I hardly ever think about it, and for the most part forget I even have Crohns disease. Regular daily bowel movement, no diahrea in 2 years, not 1 episode. However, I've been on a mostly liquid diet for 6+ months now (out of habit now more than necessity, but then again, maybe its keeping the symptoms away), as well as low dose prednisone for the past 2 years nonstop. So I can't really say I'm the same as I was before diagnosis. But life is good and I have no discomfort, so as far as I'm concerned personally I'm in remission.