Our insurance company just approved a year's worth of the original medication, which my son can no longer take, because the vasculitis — which resulted from the second medication — returned after his treatment with the first medication on Monday.

This is my sitcom. I don't like it.

Good googly moogly, Cindy. I am so sorry about this insanity.

I'm not asking this in a masked way of giving advice kind of way, but because I was just doing some searching on my own behalf and was thinking about your son. Have your doctors talked about any possible clinical trials for him? Or, is that even something he'd be interested in? I mean, if there are any that would be of interest.

Timelies all!

The last couple of times I got a pedicure, I added a sugar scrub for my calves. Felt nice and smelled good.(Citrus in the scrub)

No, Jen (and I didn't take your question in a bad way). The problem right now isn't the Crohn's itself, so I hope we're not at the point, yet.

C's Crohn's has been in what they would consider* remission since his surgery (where they removed his ascending colon and part of his small intestine), but with Crohn's patients, they've found they have to keep medicating, even during surgically induced remission. (They used to just do surgery and that was it, until it came back, but they used to just treat with steroids, too.)

As Teppy mentioned, there are modern Crohn's meds that are not anti-TNF agents. Because we now have eight (7.5) weeks, his gastro is going to consult with other gastros who have had patients who have experienced vasculitis as side effect of treatment (it is rare) and see what treatments they've found success with. (Ironically, and Teppy can tell me if I'm wrong, but I think sometimes, they use the meds that caused this vasculitis TO TREAT vasculitis.)

Since this had to happen, it didn't happen at the worst time for C, Crohn's-wise. His colonoscopy last summer was beautiful (I know that's an odd word choice, but I've seen slides from his gut pre-treatment-pre-surgery, and last summer, and you wouldn't think they were from the same person).

* I say "they consider it in remission" because there's some dispute between IBD patients and gastroenterologists on what amounts to remission. C still has to avoid some foods, etc., and uses the bathroom more than someone without Crohn's, has more gastro upsets than someone without Crohn's, but he feels good, is at a healthy weight, and enjoys good quality of life.

Honestly, I'm hoping that some of the mRNA technology that gave us this vaccine will lead to advances in diseases like Crohn's and other auto-immune diseases.

Hat trick...

Good for you, Sheryl. You deserve every bit of that Me-Time.

(Ironically, and Teppy can tell me if I'm wrong, but I think sometimes, they use the meds that caused this vasculitis TO TREAT vasculitis.)

Because medications (and the human body) are freaking WEIRD. (I myself have an allergic reaction to one specific steroid, which I was taking...to stop an allergic reaction [to something else]. So, yeah. Shit is weird.)

It is so quiet on the board today that I have checked several times to see if I'm logged in.

It is so quiet on the board today that I have checked several times to see if I'm logged in.

I see you and you exist and you haven't slipped into blinvisibility nor "out of phase" in some technobabble episode of ST:TNG!