Prednisone and Remicade Stopped Working Quickly

Sounds like the doctor is doing the right things so far. That's good.

Where is your son's disease located?

Also, while it can be troubling that the *symptoms* went away and then returned so quickly, it doesn't necessarily mean that the inflammation actually went away and then came back so quickly. It might be getting better slowly, but his symptoms might appear a bit random while it heals/improves. In other words, when you start these meds, you can track symptoms to see if they improve, but you really also need to do scopes or MRI's as well, to see what is really going on inside. Maybe he's improving inside, but hasn't totally healed, so symptoms are now come-and-go.

That's for the Remicade, which can actually heal the inflammation. Prednisone usually makes the person feel better quickly, and it reduces symptoms quite a bit, but it's ability to actually heal the gut lining is much less so.

I would guess they've done so, but to make sure - have they run multiple stool cultures to make sure there's no infection? Have they also tested/looked for CMV (cytomegalovirus)? Sometimes a superimposed infection can lead to results like your son is having.

Thanks for the replies. He did have a stool culture several weeks ago as part of the diagnosis process, but not since beginning treatment. I will ask about the possibility of a secondary infection. I never thought of that.

His inflammation seems to be in his entire colon and some in his stomach as well. Possibly his small intestine as well, but the colonoscopy and endoscopy can't see that.

The thing is his symptoms don't come and go. On both medicines, they went away immediately, then after day 13, they returned and got worse each day. He has infusion number 3 today, so maybe he will see some improvement. Your story minnietoty gives me some hope.