Hello all - I was diagnosed with Crohn's in the mid 1970s and at that time the only 2 options were prednisone and sulfasalazine. Thankfully (I guess) sulfa got me about 35 years of semi-remission with a few serious flare-ups that needed prednisone. But by 2013 I had to have surgery and got an ileostomy that was supposedly reversible. The reversal surgery was in 2017 and it did not take, so I had to get a new ileostomy. After this I had my GI doctor do an ileoscopy (colonoscopy without having to come through the rear lol) - and he claimed I was `Crohn's free'.

In the meantime my wife has heard of all the new and exciting treatments in the USA - things have come a long way as none of the medications except Remicade were familiar to me. I couldn't get that one anyway because I had been stable for too long and wasn't a candidate for that super expensive infusion treatment.

Anyway, I wanted to ask this group if anyone that had Crohn's and got an ileostomy ever had to go back on newer medications. My GI doc said that I should come back if I had symptoms, but so far other than skin irritation I don't seem to have any bowel issues.

I may just get another ileoscopy just to confirm things, but I think that once you have been under the knife things will never be the same regardless of the science that has been discovered since the 1970s!

Thanks in advance

Dan