How does simponi get you into remission?

Prior to remicade I was having 5-6 bms a day, mushy-to-loose stool, extreme urgency with accidents every week or so. I noticed my first improvement on remicade at week 3, my bm frequency dropped, and the stool looked firmer. Again at week 7, I had a noticeable drop in frequency and increase in firmness. I was also tapering pred from 20-mgs to zero in the four months, so there was more going on. Urgency did improve some, but was a lot slower to heal. I was off of pred in four months, and at 3-4 bms a day, solid and formed with just a touch of urgency. In the months that followed, I got down to 1-2 bms a day without urgency, and finally settled at 1-bm a day.

It was a process, some big jumps in improvement early on, and then much more gradual but stead improvement until I reached a remission. As an example, I'd start a month going 4 times on average a day with the occasional 3 times. By the end of that month, 3 would be my average with the occasional 4 on a bad day. During the course of that same month, I'd start with mostly mushy stool and the occasional bit of firmness. And as that month progressed, the firmer stools became the average and the looser ones the minority/bad-days only. And firmer changed-month to month. From being very wavy/soft/broken up bits with predominately liquid, to over the months becoming normal looking over a number of slow, steady stages.

Try and take the long view. Start a month with what's my daily average bms, average firmness, and average urgency. And reassess every couple of weeks. I was noticing clear but small monthly improvements.

My GI said it can take up to 8 weeks. I'm really nervous because if I don't show improvement by the end of next month I might just opt for surgery. I'm just so done with it all.

People keep telling me that I don't need surgery yet but when will be a good time? I have a life to get back to. I haven't worked for two and a half months and I would also like to be able to travel. This flare is already draining me hard and I'm so afraid I won't recover. Even if I got into remission now it will take me months to recover from this flare. Always has been this way for me. I want to be done! I've lost so much weight already and I have nothing to look forward to.

Audrina, I have read a number of your threads in the process of looking for information on steroid induced osteoporosis. Have you taken any more Prednisone since that discovery of osteoporosis? I can't take mesalamines any more. Even the enemas give me acute pancreatitis (we stopped them before it got that far, but I knew what to look for) so any time I start into the weight loss ect, my GI's answer is Prednisone. I feel so frustrated like you are saying. I was down to 5 mg of Prednisone and recently flared back up 10 days before my Entyvio infusion. My GI bumped me back up to 15 mg. I haven't even bothered to ask, I just started the tape again this week. I have come to the point that I would rather have surgery than destroy my body with meds like Prednisone. I plan to ask about taking Immuran with the Entyvio, because I really don't think the Entyvio is enough. On the other hand, I don't want to not give something a chance. I don't know how simponi works, so I know I haven't answered your question, I just really relate to what you wrote.

Kara, I haven't had an endoscopy since 2015. Everything was fine.

Spring I refuse prednisone outright. My GI knows that yet he brings it up at every appointment. However I will take Uceris but it doesn't show any effect. My bones are still quite bad especially my hip. I'm hoping to improve them and I know it will take some time. If I take pred again all my progress in the bone area is gone. I can live without my colon but not without my bones. Imuran has been awesome for me however it just randomly stopped working in March! I was in remission with it for five years. I'm thinking about getting back on it after I give it a break for a while. I was on Imuran in 2005-2007 and 2013 until this year. In 2007 it stopped working too and it worked again in 2013. I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe it's my metabolism or the stress at work. I'm lost at this point.

MarkWithIBD, five years is a long time. At this point I would definitely make a decision. I believe they can do some tests after colectomy to find out whether you have Crohn's or not. How long have you been diagnosed for? I have my diagnosis since 2002 and I'm pretty sure that I have colitis. I'm ok with having a bag for a while. My GI actually told me that the surgeon is looking at the rectum and if it's in good shape they can create a jpouch within the first surgery. He said I should try to improve my rectum with enemas. I've been taking enemas every night now.

Andrina, I am to the point of refusing Prednisone too. I am scared of doing that though. I go downhill pretty fast off of it. I feel like I am in such a catch 22 if I need time for a new medication to work. I just got my test results back, and I have developed anti bodies to Entyvio. I want to try Immuran as I haven't tried that. Then I suppose they will want to try things like Simponi ect. I so wish we could know in advance if a medication is going to be worth messing with!!! Especially when some of them take so long to take effect.

I hope you figure it out quickly.....

Ditto better to request xeljanz (approved for UC) or stelara (off-label, not approved yet for UC).

Since my last shot I keep having fevers. I'm scared. However I feel that my bm rate is going down a little. The other night I was delirious from the fever. I don't know.