Prognosis?

Hey guys...what do you think the long term prognosis is for the average person with Crohns? I'm going through a flare right now so I'm kind of depressed and pissed off about it, and of course it makes me think the worst (like I tend to do with any health problem I run into).

I realize people that come to this forum are typically sicker then people who don't so it's a bad place to get statistics, and this applies to pretty much ANY forum. If you had Crohns and were feeling fine you probably wouldn't bother reading or posting on the forum except maybe once in a while.

I've read different reports that 80% of people with Crohns end up having surgery, and then I read other reports that the vast majority of Crohs patients do just fine under some medication and there are a small minority who don't respond to any meds or have issues with them, and end up have severe problems because of it. So I'm just curious....Do you think the average person with Crohns takes some medication and just lives their lives normally, goes through a flare once in a while and that's it? Or are we all destined to get worse and worse with age/disease progression or whatever and it's just a matter of time? Or are they coming out with a cure in a year or two? :)

Prognosis really is very variable. One thing I can tell you though, is that there are therapies available today, that if they work, an hold surgery at bay for quite a few people with Crohn's disease. My husband was in the hospital fighting both a bad crohns flare up and a cdiff infection, and was being followed by a colo-rectal surgeon to do a temporary ileostomy.

They gave him remicade and he was home 3 weeks after, slowly recovering. It has now been 5 years, and he's had a few bumps in the road, but it is keeping the crohns at bay. Remicade came out in 1998 - before that, my husband would have not escaped surgery.

I think the 80% of crohns patients needing surgery in their lifetime is slowly dropping - of course, even the new meds don't help everyone. I think one thing to learn and focus on especially when the going is tough, is to take it one day at a time. There is hope.

Hope you feel better soon

PV

I was diagnosed with severe fistulizing crohns in the lower colon and rectum in  june of 2007.  I refused immune surpressant drugs like 6mp and remacade and opted to change my diet to the SCD diet and use only pentassa.  I have been in complete remission since dec 2007 without any flares or symptoms.  Colonoscopy last year showed no active desease anywhere in my colon.  I still follow scd diet and still take pentassa.

My cousine was diagnosed with severe CD in the illium in Jan 2012. She suffered 6 months in excruciating pain until surgery was finally preformed in july 2012 where 4 inches of TI was removed.  Now she has gained back her weight, feels better then ever, and wished she had had the surgery earlier.  She is still symptom free and taking pentassa and aslo following scd diet.