what does remission mean?

My GI told me the other day that remission used to mean no to little symptoms.  However, now they are leaning towards remission meaning no clinical signs of crohn's.  this means when they can see it on a colonoscopy and/or a biopsy indicates crohn's, that they cannot call you in remission even if you are not having any symptoms.  The was new to me.  Since crohn's is a lifetime cronic condition, I always thought we looked for those days of no symptoms/symptom free as the indication of remission.  But the GI says no.  He said the thought is there are way to many people who get to being sympton free and stop their meds only to find out that they really were not in remission and the crohn's acts up very quickly. 

Anyone else heard of this newer version of remission?

Techincally, the meds can put some patients in remission but often if they stop taking their meds then they will flare again, so the patient is technically in remission but the fact that they stopped their meds gives a higher increased risk of falling back into a flare.

It's important to note that even while on meds religiously, patients can still go into a flare (just the nature of the disease).

This is what makes it fall under "chronic illness" because even with meds patients can relaps and flare again. Unlike people that have cancer for example, treatments/surgery can get rid of the cancer (it doesn't for chronic illness, specifically crohn's) and yes Cancer can return but still different than compared to a chronic illness.