Remicade Question - Flares on Biologic?

Is it possible to flare while on a biologic, add meds temporarily to treat it, and then continue successfully on your biologic?

Context: I have been on Remicade (5 mg/kg every 4 weeks). I was in complete remission as of last fall, and then had some minor symptoms return over the past few weeks. It had been a particularly stressful month for me with a death in my immediate family, so I chalked the symptoms up to stress, but we did a calprotectin test anyway. It came back high (329), so we did a flexible sigmoidoscopy today to assess inflammation.

Since my last scope (Feb 2017), there has been substantial healing. Where I had inflammation through the sigmoid colon last year, I now have just a few centimeters of inflammation, all in the rectum. Everything else is completely healed.

I was expecting my GI to recommend switching to Entyvio, since I'm flaring on Remicade - but he surprised me by saying that instead of moving away from Remicade immediately, he'd like to try a few days of Cortifoam to see if that helps with the current bit of inflammation.

He said occasionally, people do have blips on a biologic, but if the biologic has worked well and the inflammation is limited to a small area, sometimes it's possible to treat that bit of inflammation by adding a foam/enema temporarily, and then the Remicade continues to do its job.

He also said that if things don't heal up quickly on the Cortifoam, we'll consider other treatment options ASAP.

So my question for you Remicade users - has anyone ever encountered something like this, where you have a small flare, stay on your biologic, and treat it successfully by adding medication temporarily?

(I'm intolerant of mesalamines and not a candidate for AZA/6mp, so adding those aren't an option).

Thanks!

Yes, I've achieved a remission on remicade, had a few blip/minor flares since, and am still on remicade. Smaller, shorter, and less intense flares since remicade. When in initial remission, got rid of everything but remicade. Added everything back except pred. Teetering on the edge of remission since.

You'd only discontinue remicade if you had significant antibodies to it. Or lost all response in a severe flare.

Treat mild flares with mild medications (consider adding back mesalamines if ypu had discontinued them). Rectal-route steroids or oral uceris are appropriate and equally mild.