Posted 9/4/2014 9:42 PM (GMT 0)
Hi:
You posed questions on the end of a thread, so I didn't see it till now, sorry.
You wondered if Entyvio was worth a try or if you should go to surgery. I don't know how long your husband has been battling UC, and maybe it doesn't matter. If it's uncontrolled, it needs attention.
We had a good run with Remicade, and it works pretty quickly. That would be my first choice for biologics, and I'd do dual therapy with 6mp. Good evidence to support both, though it seems the cancer risk is solely the immumodulators like Imuran and 6mp. I am not sorry we tried Entyvio and think it is worth a shot. Our doc thinks it is the best drug made available in many many years. Biologics can buy lots of time and who know when Old Mike and Canada Mark(and a few other smarties) will solve this conundrum. I am not sorry for all of the crazy things we tried- some here have been helped by just more spinach and sunflower seeds!
I really had high hopes for Entyvio, and knew it worked slowly for some, but we could not wait. At week 6 there was regression, and not a shred of improvement, had to up the Pred just to stay out of the hospital. I asked if there were patients who spontaneously improved late,r who did not show any signs in the early weeks and was told no;
usually there was some shred to hang on to. Surgery was at week 8. My girl was just too sick-flare for a full year after failing Tacro, and failed reintroduction of Remi. Don't worry about the out of pocket deductible's met- you will meet the max next year too, as even if you get the first step of surgery, you cannot fit all three in before Dec. The 2 step seems to have fallen out of favor with the top surgeons. I do know at you will heal from surgery better if you are not too sick going in, so it is a balancing act. Keep us posted. Hugs on your journey.