Entyvio every 4weeks?

NSSG, I did go ahead make the Jan appt with the doc at my current GI practice. I don't want to completely sever the realationship. That doc is who has done nearly all of my scopes since I was diagnosed and I trust him (apparently I have a difficult loopy colon).

If things don't really start kicking in with the Entyvio by the end of Oct (that would be the 4th 4wk infusion) I am also going to go back to the doc I saw last week at another practice. He said I can come back any time and that if I didn't see improvement by the 4th infusion he recommended doing another test on my levels and probably moving on to Humira. I liked that doc, just not sure how knowledgeable he is about IBD, but he's easy to talk to, seems open minded, and has a holistic approach to medicine. He even has a nutrition center as part of his practice..

Still doing the steroid enemas. The mesalamine enemas didn't do anything when this flare started, but I am going to start alternating them with the steroid if things feel more stable. I really want to get off all 'roids! I am holding at 10 mg of pred until after my next infusion next week and then hopefully I can start tapering slowly again. I can function ok on 10 mg. I just want to get off of them.

Last scope was in June and rectum had mild inflammation, sigmoid looked pretty bad (by far the worst it's been), but the rest of the colon was clear. I am hoping the sigmoid is healing because of the decrease in blood. Just wish stools were more formed. This has been the weirdest flare -- never any diarrhea and the most I have gone is maybe 4-5x/day but most days I am at my usual 2-3x/day. Only symptoms are the blood and misformed stool. The scope definitely confirmed the flare though.

I am going to go ahead with the stool study because I just want to make sure there isn't some weird parasite in there causing all these problems

Hey CC, I'm in the same boat as you - dx age 52 and overweight. Been on pred for almost two years straight now while trying to get on something else, nothing working so far and have gained a crapload of weight that I really didn't need. Have just done 3rd loading dose of Entyvio, and have tapered to 17.5mg pred daily as of two days ago. Hard to say if Entyvio is really working or if its the pred. Still going 5-6 times/day, but I hit 20 times in June so I'm definitely improving!! I will have tapered quite low by next dose and should hopefully know then if it is working. I feel your pain about dealing with Drs. I am on my 2nd GI and while I don't think he's the most amazing Dr, I like him and can communicate well with him. He answers questions via Patient Portal very quickly, sometimes within minutes!! There are some decent doctors out there, it just takes time to find them. Hope you can find some good ones soon!

That's not that long. 4 months... I know if we stop pushing ourselves to get off, we can end up on it way longer than intended. That's what happened to me anyway. I don't know why GI's keep filling the scripts, but I guess when nothing else works, what's the option? I couldn't get off it without having symptoms get worse, and worse. Eventually I looked back and a year had passed. I was on varying doses, mostly under 15mg, but still, that's a long time. I lost my figure, I had 2 chins... my face was covered in acne. I was irritable, mean, angry... I was so unhappy with myself. A year is a long time, and I think it was closer to 18 months for me. After that long course, I said anything is better. I got lucky with some meds for a while, but I knew I couldn't get involved with another year on pred. Let's hope you get well on entyvio in the next few weeks, if not, Humira is likely to be a quick resolution & will get you off pred and free of it for a very long time.