Time for surgery?

I am 21 years old, and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when I was 18. I have been struggling to control my symptoms basically since I was diagnosed with almost no luck. I have tried Asacol, Prednisone, Lialda, Cimzia, Remicade, and now Entyvio. I have had three infusions so far, and I haven't noticed any change yet.

I've read that Entyvio is not a fast acting drug, and so I was not expecting some kind of miraculous change. However, according to my doctor, if this drug isn't successful for me I am going to have to think about surgery. I've had to drop out of school and move home for the semester, and have lost about 30 pounds over the past few months.

Are there any young people who have gotten surgery? And at what point did you know it was time?

I feel that 21 is young to jump into surgery, however at this point my disease is really taking a toll on my quality of life and I'm just getting so frustrated. Thanks everyone!

My GI told me most people see response with in 10 weeks. I gave entyvio as much time as I could until I was pretty confident in my own mind that it wasn't going to work. it was pretty easy for me to come to terms with that because nothing else had worked well for me. it was sort of "par for the course".

Luckily i had made appointments to meet some surgeons and I planned ahead a bit so by the time I was ready to accept entyvio was a failure for me, I had surgery scheduled and I was ready to go.

Surgery has been an incredible change for me. I am in my 30s, so I am not as young as you. I can tell you, if I knew I would end up where I am from surgery, I wouldn't have wasted my late 20s and early 30s struggling with UC, drugs, doctor appointments and symptoms.

There are loads of people your age and younger. Most of them no longer post here, they are healthy and out living life. There are always a few who are unhappy too. it's scary to read on the internet, you really need to focus on you, and be aware that not every result is perfect with every surgery, but realize that the likelihood of a poor result is low and can be further reduced by using a very experienced surgeon. Your young age should benefit you in the case of j-pouch surgery too. i've seen a lot of younger people have amazing results with a j-pouch. j-pouch.org has a lot more info than HW for jpouch specifically. Wishing you the best of luck in whatever you decide.