No Predisone - doc says only alternative is Remicade?

They usually try 6mp first before Remi. I couldn't take it so they tried me on Prograf.

There is a new body of research that suggests the most effective way of treating crohn's disease is top down not bottom up. Which is to say hit the disease with the most effective drugs in the medical arsenal first before the disease has time to wreck its havoc throughout the system. I suspect your physician may be aware of this emerging new standard of practice.

The thing with crohn's is that it is a disease of cumulative insults. Over time, if you do not get it under control, it will do irreversible damage to your intestines and compromise your ability to absorb nutrients. That in turn affects every tissue in your body. Once the disease has done damage it is much more difficult to achieve wellness.

I have been coping now for 30 years and I too went the denial/natural route. It worked for awhile -- if your definition of worked is that I wasn't on heavy duty drugs (against medical advice) and I was able to work and care for my family. But eventually the cumulative effects caught up to me.

Now I am on some of the heavy duty meds and I'm finally experiencing my first non-surgically induced remission in 30 years. I feel better than I have felt in a long time, but I am a surgical cripple, disabled, unable to work at the career I loved. I will never be able to unring the bell and put my insides back to where they were when I was just diagnosed.

There's no way of knowing whether I would be in this position if I had heeded my GIs advice to go on 6-MP back in 1984 when he first recommended it. With the benefit of hindsight, I do know that i regret the decision.

There are many different ways of approaching a diagnosis of crohn's. No one can make the decision for you, but you will benefit from first acknowledging exactly what is going on as far as your crohn's is concerned. Cleopatra was the queen of da nile. You don't want to wear her crown.

Forgot to say that I completely agree with the top down approach! Don't give scar tissue time to form if you can help it. Besides, steroids are poison to your system and bones!

If you prefer not to move to Remicade this soon, another option might be total enteral nutrition. This involves drinking (or tube feeding with) a special liquid formula instead of regular food for three to eight weeks to induce remission. Some people then continue to use smaller amounts of the same formula as a dietary supplement, along with their regular diet, to help in maintaining remission. It can be quite an effective treatment, and generally, if it's going to work, you will start to see improvement (decrease in symptoms and sed rate) within the first week to 10 days. It's rarely used in the US because doctors think it's too difficult to make people give up their regular diet for several weeks, but it's a first-line treatment in Japan, and used relatively frequently in the UK and Canada, and also used sometimes in Europe. At any rate, it's a possibility to discuss with your doctor.

There are other drugs out there, but they can take months for improvement. Usually prednisone is used during this time to keep the disease under control while waiting for the other drugs to kick in. He may be thinking that Remicade will kick in quicker, but be aware, it doesn't always.

You need to discuss why he said it is the ONLY other drug. Mention 6MP, Imuran, Methotrexate, and even Humira, and ask why he feels they aren't options for you.

Then it's up to you to make an educated decision based on what he tells you, what you know about other meds, and what you feel will work best for you with your symptoms. You make the ultimate decision.

I went from prednisone to entocort to prednisone to remicade. My Dr is a top down guy as well! I didn't want to be on prednsione forever and he didn't want me to be either. I think as of today I am starting to see results! For the first time in 7 years (was only diagnosed in april 07, though) I didn't have diarrhea today!!!!!!!!!!!

My third remicade infusion is september 13!