active Crohn's w/Cimzia

[caramia]

In January, I increased my dose of Cimzia (a biologic injection) to the highest... 2 injections every 2 weeks.  Still had symptoms, so I had a CT w/enterography done at the end of April.  (it's a CT that focuses more on the intestines... you drink 3 bottles of contrast in 45 minutes, followed by a glass of water,  an injection of the pure sugar diabetics use & the hot-feeling IV contrast.  it was the worst CT I've ever had)

Anyways, it showed signs of active Crohn's still.  I started 40 mg of prednisone (steroid) to get things under control & we discussed starting azathioprine (basically an immunosuppressant) two weeks later.  Now that I'm at 2 weeks on prednisone & still not getting better, my GI have me another week of steroids... holding of on azathioprine for now. 

If the extra week doesn't do any good, I'm looking at another colonoscopy... my 4th.  I'm only 26

There's no real point to this... but if anyone has had active Crohn's despite high doses of lots of meds, let's chat   (in addition to all this, I'm going through job change stress & we were discussing TTC... but that's on the back-burner once again because of my illness.  delaying babies for the 2nd time is the part that really bothers me).

[bcv513]

I'm sorry caramia. I know a lot of people have luck with the combo of azathioprine plus biologics. Hopefully things will settle down for you soon.

I know how frustrating it is when you have to put TTC on the back burner. I had to do it when I was first diagnosed and again when the azathioprine raised my liver enzymes and I had to stop taking it. If you ever want to tak or vent, PM me any time.

[marshmallow]

I was on Cimzia until this summer. My story was pretty similar to yours--but after adding 6MP didn't help, my doctor had me move to Remicade. Cimzia just no longer seems to help my symptoms. However, Remicade made a huge difference right away and we were able to TTC right away again. As you can see from my ticker, that worked out pretty well and I'm due in less than a month!

Good luck--if Cimzia every 2 weeks isn't helping, I'm sure your doctor will seriously consider switching biologics.

If you almost barf when you're drinking the contrast, they can do it with only one bottle (I may have learned this one the hard way!)

[greenscreen]

Well not Cimzia, but I was on Humira weekly. I switched to Remicade/Imuran/Asacol HD. It's working the best of any treatment so far, but still not in complete remission. On the plus side, I prefer Remicade to Humira shots so there's that...
Sorry you are going through a rough time.