Immune Suppressant vs. Biologic

What dosage amounts of all these meds were you on and are you still on? You might not have been taking them at a high enough dose.

I really hate it when a doctor says that you are "steroid dependent". The truth is almost every single patient would be steroid dependent if you cannot find a maintenance med good enough to keep you in remission. Steroids (which includes Uceris) only work while you take them and in almost all cases don't work the minute you get off. They are good at helping your condition while you are on them and then hopefully the maintenance meds work well enough to keep you in remission once the steroids are removed. That's why I asked the dosages of your current and past maintenance meds because if the dosages weren't high enough that could have been your problem. If so you might stand a better shot by taking the Uceris again and staying on a higher dose of maintenance meds once the steroid is removed.

There are a lot of pros and cons to consider when comparing the immunemodulators and the biologics. You will get many different answers both on this site and with medical professionals. There are many different schools of thought.

As a side note, don't read too much into your allergy testing. I personally don't think it means much. I mean it sounds logical but somehow that doesn't usually translate into reality. It might very well not have one thing to do with your UC. UC is like magic, what your eyes and senses see and feel often is not the reality going on. For instance, you might not be alleric to fruits, veggies, meats, or dairy but they could still be a major factor in your UC condition. Many UC'rs are lactose intolerant which won't show up in allergy testing and many UCr's are low in the digestive enzyme DAO, which helps metabolize dietary histamines. If this is part of your UC problem, certain fruits, veggies, meats, and dairy might be a huge problem to you that you don't even realize. Often times nothing is as it seems and simple beliefs are usually not part of the complex problem and could even be the exact opposite of what you believe.

Immune Suppressant medications (6mp/Imuran/aza) are usually tried before biologics (Remicade, Simponi, Humira) medications. 6mp/Imuran/aza takes 2-3 months to reach therapeutic levels in your body and in the meantime you must stay on a corticosteroid such as prednisone or uceris while you wait for 6mp/Imuran/aza to kick in. 6mp/Imuran/aza require regular blood monitoring, weekly at first, but it will go down to monthly and tri-monthly in time.

Biologic Medications (Remi, Simponi, Humira) often work quickly, sometimes within days or weeks. Remicade takes 2-3 hours to administer by a nurse, it is given via IV, every 8 weeks. The others are subcutaneous (just below the skin) self-injections, you can do yourself. 60+ percent of people feel better after taking remicade and 30+% reach remission (better odds than the rest of the biologics mentioned: Humira and Simponi). Biologics are often taken at the same time as Immune Suppressant Medications (6mp/Imuran/aza) in order to reduce the odds of building up anti-bodies to the biologics as the antibodies make biologics either less effective or not work.

Imuran and biologics both reduce your immune system's capabilities making one more prone to infections, colds and the like. You might get one or two more colds per year, and they might last 1.5 weeks instead of 1 week, each. Your immune system is knocked down a few pegs but still functions fine. Certain things you can do, like being more vigilant with had washing, using disinfectants, and so forth (although you don't have to be a germaphobe or anything). If you are prone to getting UTI's, bronchitis and other such infections, notify your doctor right away when you first see signs of them, as with a suppressed immune system those infections get worse quicker than a normal person would. Many here have kids and survive while on these meds.

Fecal transplant has the best results for people with CDIFF. Fecal transplant with uc has very mixed and spotty results, scientific papers have not encouraging results.

I was on Imuran for a few months. Kicked me into remission as soon as it reached therapeutic levels (about 3 months). I have a young child and I didn't get sick more often but when I did get a cold, it lasted a lot longer.

Thanks everyone!