Salofalk to Remicade

My doctor wants me on remicade after having a sigmoidoscopy a few weeks ago. I am slightly confused, however, because I have never tried any other drug that falls outside the 5-ASA category, should I go straight for remicade?

The only drugs I have been on are asacol and salofalk (currently on my first round of prednisone and betnesol), and I am wondering, is it normal to jump from the bottom of the ladder all the way to the top without trying any alternatives?! I get the feeling that I'm being rushed into Biologics before trying immunosuppressants first. Is that an unfounded fear or should I be concerned?

Thanks for the reply Marauder93, we did discuss that option briefly, and I guess you're right about immunosuppressants being statistically more dangerous (then again, the statistical increase in danger could technically be mostly attributed to patients that are on much higher doses than colitis sufferers, e.g. organ transplant recepients, etc.). I think it's best to avoid developing antibodies to remicade by attempting it alongside imuran (or at least minimizing the possibility to the best of my ability), I'll talk it over with the doctor once more and we shall see.

The thing that truly caught me off guard was that I was under the impression that different options are discovered prior to giving the nod to Biologics. I haven't come across anybody that jumped the line from mesalamines and a fairly low dose of steroids to infliximab. I'd compare it to boxing in the sense of going from the featherweight division to the heavyweight division in a year, it's not as impossible as it is unusual.

I went straight from Asacol as maintenance with prednisone/rowasa for flares to remicade and what a life changer. In hindsight, I was not well controlled prior to remicade.

More and more doctors are going with this same jump. Many of them believe that if you are in a bad flare that it is better to go with the heavy hitters early. The immune suppressants can take months to kick in and as your condition gets worse and worse the long term prognosis often gets worse.

iPoop: The sigmoidoscopy results were bad, pretty severe inflammation throughout, that's a sigmoidoscopy that followed up a colonoscopy that showed severe inflammation of the final two feet of the colon mind you. You do make a good point about how long it takes to kick in for immunosuppressants and I guess the inflammation is too severe for the immunosuppressants to handle alone.

Platinumpixie: Thank you for sharing that, it's reassuring to know that there is hope. I believe things will be perfectly fine once remicade kicks in.

Guardian7: That would be neat, but I have tried many supplements with very little luck, including turmeric and aloe. I am open to retrying them, but nothing has truly made a difference as of yet.

Garylouisville: I believe my specialist said that he wants to get things under control as fast as possible, and I do agree that doing so would be the best option, although I can probably afford a few more months in a flare, it has unfortunately become the norm.

Fruitgirl: The prednisone is helping a lot, but it isn't really doing the trick, I tapered from 25mg to 10mg over the past few weeks (5mg at a time), and things have gradually worsened, rather mildly but worryingly nevertheless. The only stints of "remission" I had, and I put that in quotation marks for good reason, have been plagued with inflammation, urgency, and all around frequency.