Does Remicad help?

I was 1st diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 1998(at 23 yo). I have done pretty well with diet and exercise for 11 years. Then in Dec of 2008 I had to go to the ER for the worst abdominal pain I have ever felt(right after finishing RN school to boot). They said it has turned into Pancolitis by now. I ended up in the hospital for 22 days on TPN and had to be cardioverted(reset my heart). I lost 30 lbs during the stay. I understand that after 10 years of having this, it can turn cancerous. I almost had to have emergency surgery due to a partial obstruction but luckily didn't have to. They could only get through the trans colon to scope me, so I am just now scheduling a colonoscopy a year later now that my insurance renewed. I was released on 60mg of Prednisone, and Asacol 400mg(9pills/day). Then it started getting better. I went a year with little to no problems. However it flared back up in Dec of 2009(1 year later due to stress) and I am on my 3rd round of Prednisone 60mg, Cipro, and Flagyl, and Asacol. Hopefully this works after 3 recent bouts. I am interested in hearing from anyone that has had the Remicade infusions or any other suggestions...does it help? I really don't want surgery if I can avoid it. I am now 35 and need a little info on what other meds are available. Anyone can shed some light for me? Sorry for being so wordy...new to this forum. Thanks!!
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I'm also in the same situation wondering about Remicade as my doctor wants me to start it as my Colitis has been flaring for some time now with no luck on my current meds to control it. One thing I see is that you are on antibiotics and from personal experiance in my past with antibiotics is they caused C Difficile induced Colitis by using antibiotics. Here is a quick link explaining it

http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec09/ch127/ch127a.html

I know my colitis symptoms got worse taking antibiotics but were necessary at the time to deal with other issues. I do believe Flagyl is used to treat C Difficile but I believe I contracted C Difficile while taking Cipro.

Remicade worked really well for me for the first year or so of infusions, then the results startred to taper off, & by the time I had my last infusion I could've been getting a saline drip for all the good it did. My first 2 infusions were like magic, but I never really felt as great as I did after those. I had some initial complications on it- after 1st infusion developed strep pneumonia, drug induced hepatitis, septicemia, etc. Wound up in ICU for a week, & took about 3 months to get back on my feet & re-start the Remicade. So I'll never know if the alteration in loading dose schedule is what screwed me from the beginning, or if like many others, my body just developed antibodies to the drug fairly quickly. I'd definitely try it though, it was wonderful for awhile! Prior to starting Remicade I had surgery scheduled, & was able to cancel it.

We are at 1 yr and 3 months of success, when nothing else even slowed this nasty disease down. Not side affects to speak of. Took a while to kick in, had to change the dose and frequency. Seems to be slipping a bit, but still a colon saving med. Worth a try...

Burli, I think that exercising 3-4 days a week kept my stress levels down which helped the most. I usually ate pretty healthy(chicken rice broccoli) but would also go out to eat and have drinks occasionally. I have to say that when I stayed in good physical shape whether it was weight training, jogging, or martial arts, it really helped the most(keeping good cardiac circulation and high endorphins). I have always had to stay away from milk though and too much sugar since this first began. If I had any flare during the 11 years, it would go away on its own with no meds. The Dr said that I should consider myself lucky in the way it stayed at bay for those 11 years even though I should have been on an anti inflammatory, such as Asacol(I was never even aware of this before) .
My girlfriend just talked to the GI Dr today and explained that I am on my 3rd round of Prednisone therapy since the beginning of Dec. and he thinks that there is something seriously going wrong finally. He wants me in the hospital ASAP to get scoped by him and thinks there is a good chance I need surgery. All I know is that this Prednisone is making me a little wacky and I am going to comply and go get checked out. Thanks for all the feedback. I wish you all well.
Again, I am new to this site but how can I make that line divider to list my meds below my posts like everyone else? Thanks!!

Thanks for elaborating UncleJ. That's very similar to my sister. For the first 10 years of her UC things were caused by stress and would go away on their own. She tried various alternative treatments but found that reduction in stress was her best remedy. Over the last 5 years she’s had to turn to steroids to stop her flare symptoms. She avoided using them until becoming house-bound for a year.