teen with crohns

Uh, seems like a sledgehammer to a nail. What about starting with rectal mesalamine and oral mesalamine?

What triggered the scope?

I would not make the leap to Remicade so quickly. There are plenty of alternatives before jumping to that. There has been research both ways but Methotrexate,6-MP, lots of choices. If my D only had those symptoms I would have pushed the EEN treatment we are starting as an only choice. D was way too far into the disease to consider EEN when TPN, prednisone, and bowel rest didn't stop anything and we almost lost her.

Press your doctor to understand why the push to Remicade and why not something else. There could be more to the story but I would just make sure you know why that is.

6'2" and 155 lbs? That sounds severely underweight to me. I'm 6'3" and healthy weight for me is ~200lbs. More if I ever pack on muscle. I'm at 170-180 right now and I'm stick-thin, barely holding my own! If I ever drop below 160 it's time to get to the hospital and on some emergency meds!

I think maybe the heavy hitters are appropriate. Pain (or even symptom strength) does not equal severity.

it might be best to start out with milder drugs, remicade was my first treatment but unfourtanatly it only worked for a year. it just depends on the direction he wants to go and what he's most comfortable with. word of advice, stay away from steroids as long as possible and if used its best for only short amounts of time. for weight gain he could try boost or ensure, they have alot of calories and vitamins and its easy on your stomach.

teacher - that makes a lot more sense why the jump for Remicade. Looks like they are trying to get things back on track then. I did look up the weight/height/age and you are right, he is healthy weight and in the 68th percentile for weight so that is a positive.

Rango - I was trolling for you yesterday wanted to see how you were doing since my daughter started Humira the same time as you. Hoping it is is working well for you! So far nothing for us at 5 months.

Heth - I will give you my experience with the switch from Remicade to Humira as I don't know how old your kid is, so I thought I would give you a 13 yr old's experience with it. Moving to Humira was great in the fact my kid was no longer having to give up 1/2 a day getting an infusion so it gave her more time to be with her friends/sports/etc. (I actually prefer Humira as a caregiver. Makes scheduling much easier) We do the Humira shot at night, on Sunday & she is able to rest afterwards. She hasn't had any side effects. The needles hurt badly for her. We opted for the pre-loaded syringe to control the pain versus the pen.

So far for us the Humira hasn't worked, or we suspect it isn't. You don't feel the positive effects as quickly as Remicade. It can take months for it to start working. We are now at month 5 and still no results so the doc wants to double the dosage. When Remicade stopped working for us at month 3 (before that was amazing and back to 'normal') we quickly upped the dosage & didn't have to wait. We are having some other issues so I am waiting for the blood test to determine if Humira is even binding to the cells to work like it is supposed to before I consider doubling the dosage. Most people don't have this issue and do quite well on it.

Search this forum, or crohnsforum.com for more info on people's experience with Humira. The crohnsforum has a section specifically about kids so sometimes I find more relate-able information there.

Oh and one more thing, my crohn's has affected my mouth, esophagus, small intestine, and large intestine. Some other symptoms I have had are clubbing, joint weakness, and swelling. Hope that helps!