New member!

Hi DLouise and W*E*L*C*O*M*E.

Wish I had a problem losing weight

x

Hi and welcome to Healingwell. I will tell you one lesson I have learned in my 35 years is that you should consider diet and medications as complimentary of eachother. You really should be on meds at all times. Crohns is a chronic and incurable disease, and should be treated at all times. I once enjoyed a long remission without meds, but it ended up in a very ugly manner with a traumatic and painful emergency surgery. I always take my meds now, that was a tough lesson and it took me forever to get my disease back under control. So never will I be without meds again. I am maintained and in remission with only Asacol. Good luck!

Have you discussed the bloating and weight gain with your GI doctor?

One possible cause of the bloating could be SIBO - small intestine bacterial overgrowth. Something to check out with your GI.

I agree with Nanners about meds and Crohn's. I know a young man your age who thought he was doing very well - labs fine, felt fine. Then suddenly in just a matter of a day or two he got very sick and was hospitalized. He had an abscess, intestinal fistula and perforation. Turns out his Crohn's had been damaging his intestines undiscovered.

Reducing your risk of cancer is another reason to take at least some meds. It has been pretty thoroughly shown that IBD patients are increased risk of intestinal cancer and the 5-ASA meds like Pentasa have been shown to reduce your risk of developing cancer.

And yes, I know another young man who was 22 when he was diagnosed with colon cancer at a surveillance scope.

Speaking of which, here in the US, the standard of care is to begin cancer surveillance scopes 8 to 10 years after diagnosis. Looks like you are at 10 years - is your GI planning to do a scope any time soon?

Patricia