Remicade and Dilation

My 14 yr olddaughter has a pyloric stricture and her flare up hasn't died down with other meds so we now go to Remicade. At first I wasn't happy to go to this without trying 6MP, but I happened to listen to a webcast with the University of Chicago's head GI talk about the best way to treat Crohn's right now is to be aggressive instead of starting with the standard drugs. Her GI has suggested we dilate her to prevent a surgery, so we started this process last week (6mm). Today we try and she has food in her stomach so a no go. The good news is that we are now just waiting for insurance to clear us for Remicade. The GI did mention that he wanted to dilate once before Remicade treatment because Remicade has a tendency to cause more scar tissue to form. We do another dilation next Wed. and hopefully we start her infusion at the end of the week. Her other ped. GI wants to go to surgery now instead of trying the dilation. Is it right to try dilation first? I would think the last thing you want is to have surgery.

Hi i agree with Ides i would try what the doc is suggesting  first as your daughter is at a very young age to start having parts of her bowel removed. hopefully the remicade will work and she won't need the surgery. i only had 1 infusions of remi  (as i had a reaction on the 2nd one )but i felt the benefit of it the very next day i so wish i was still on it wishing your daughter well Bev x 

Stick to your plan. Remicade is a good drug for most. You just need to make sure that you stick to the schedule. If you miss appointments your body can begin to build antibodies and your daughter will have to stop it. The schedule isn't to bad and I did not have any side effects. I di however have to come off of it for another non related procedure and it was two weks and two days that I went for my next infusion and my body was very unhappy. Switched to Humira for 18 months and now I'm on Cimzia. I truly believe that the Remicade would have done the trick. Good luck to you and your daughter.