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!
:: thwaps today upside the head for Dana::
Today is my Friday this week so I’m just trying to get through it. Lots better than yesterday and back to back to back meetings, though!
Occasional Yard Guy is pretty much finished with the yard, though he has to come back to put in some new fence posts at some point. The before/after is astonishing (he took before and after pictures and is going to send them to Tim). He did an amazing job of clearing out all the invasive shit and debris and hauling it away.
Now, the letdown is that him cleaning out the yard DIDN'T automatically transform it into a lovely paradise with a lush green carpet of grass and twinkle lights on the fence and a big not-approved-by-Noise Design hammock in a stand. Apparently we have to do all that ourselves. We're going to need to throw down some grass seed (and now is a good time to do it, because cicadas do aerate the lawn really well) and put in a border of mulch along the fence and sort out what kind of yard accoutrements we want beyond the twinkle lights and hammock (and then obtain those yard accoutrements). But even so, now we have SUCH a good starting point.
