Remicade, SCD - Bowel Obstruction

[Guest guest]

Hello SCD Community,

I have not posted anything in quite a while. I am in need of advice regarding a drug called Remicade which is often used for treating Crohn's disease which is what I have. I've had Crohn's since I was 17, I am now 34. I had a small bowel resection where they took out about 1 foot of small intstine 5 years ago. Now last week I was in the ER and hospital for 4 days for a small bowel obstruction (food got caught in a narrowing section of my intestine and caused severe pain and blockage. Talks of surgery again. However, the cause could be due to the scaring from my surgery 5 years ago and NOT caused by a new narrowing, not sure yet. I have been on the SCD off and on for the last two years ( followng it about 70%, I know I should be at 90%-100%). Also I have taken Prednisone during stress/flares to help keep me in ok shape. Over the last year I have had multiple blockages in my small intestine that last about

8-12 hours on average each incident. It is painful and is always unexpected for some reason (except for now I know that I cannot eat raw veggies, or any type of roughage that may not get chewed well and may get stuck in the narrowed part of my instestine).

So the question comes about!! I asked this question 5 years go right before my surgery. If I stay on the SCD program with extreme devotion, commitment, and discipline - following the diet 100% (as humanly possible)....will my sympotms reverse....will my narrowing instestine return to normal wall thickness, reduced swelling, and normal function??? Even if it takes two years for this to happen, I'd still like to know if this is possible with the SCD. I understand scaring from past surgery will probably not go away no matter what.

Other Questions: has anyone taken Remicade? Has it worked for you? Are there any side effects that you have from taking Remicade? If used in conjunction with the SCD will I be healed?

Given those two questions, would anyone here recommend SCD over Remicade (don't take it at all), or Remicade over the SCD? How long does a person need to take Remicade, are we talking years, months, weeks? Once getting off Remicade, what are the chances of Crohn's returning? How bad is it to have these chemicals in your body? If your choice was down to Remicade or Surgery what would it be? Would a possible answer be that I need to combine the SCD with Remicade?

Does anyone else know of something besides Remicade that I should consider? I took Immuran with no success a few years ago.

I meet with doctor on Friday this week, so I am trying to get as much information as possible to make a good decision.

Thank you to everyone here in the SCD community!!

WA State

Crohn's 17 years

Current: Prednisone 60 mg and SCD following about 80% as efficient as possible.