Is my doc nuts?

I was told by my doc in one breath that my disease is mild and limited and then n the next breath saying things like surgery is an option and remicade. Do I have the right to suggest milder maintenence drugs for my own treatment?

 

No I am just doing the three months of pred and then go back. He never mentioned any other meds to try out at all.

Where is your disease exactly located(or most severe)? Usually GI's atleast prescribe a 5-ASA while starting off treatment of a flare(along with Prednisone) and by the time you taper off the Pred the 5-ASA should be in your system and you would take it for, pretty much, ever. It's a maintence medicine thing.

Some doctors do like to start off with the heavy drugs first to get the flare under control and find a good maintence drug for you, even if it is a bit too hardcore. My only worry would be, what if the Remicade doesn't do much and your disease worsens? Then you already lost your option of Remicade. I would save my options as far as biologics go an not start off so heavy but everyone is different. If my disease was mild and limited to one location I wouldn't try Remicade or any biologic just yet. But, unfortunately, just a month after diagnosis I had to start Remicade because my disease got bad, and that failed and caused me Lupus & several reactions. Now I'm on Humira and it hasn't worked yet! It's your call though. You know your body and you need to talk to your GI about your concerns. He may have very good reason for starting Remicade and it could work wonders for you!

The disease isn't like UC. Their isn't a cure so it'd come back eventually from my understanding. You may get a few months or even decades of remission though! Yeah I do think they make 5-ASA's for Crohn's affecting the last smart of the SI. It seems strange to me that if it was 'mild' he woud suggest such things.

Mesalamines have less side effects than the stronger meds. Some think they are more for UC than Crohn's but you can see that apparently there are many members here with full Crohn's who are helped with those meds.

If you have a mild case then perhaps diet modification can help dampen your symptoms even more. Try going gluten-free for a couple weeks or so to see if your symptoms improve. Then the same with dairy. If you are really ambitious with diet then you can try the Maker's Diet or SCD. There are so many here who have been helped by diet even if was only going gluten-free.

Check out the threads discussing LDN. It is inexpensive and has very few side effects. Many have found it to be very effective not only for Crohn's but for ulcerative colitis, Lupus, and MS, most autoimmune diseases.

OTC supplements are effective for many of us especially vitamin D and probiotics. Maybe fish oil. You are a new member but you can find many threads discussing these topics. You will be surprised how many of us are helped by these simple therapies that most doctors don't know about.

If a doctor went straight to surgery like that, yeah I'd be running away! There are a lot of medications that can be tried, especially if you only have a mild case. I'd get a second opinion on that one for sure!