Specific questions I should ask plz! Appointment Today!

Hello. I have an appointment this Mon. at UM for a second opinion and I was hoping to get some advice on questions I should ask the Dr.

I was diagnosed w/Crohns 10 yrs. Ago and have maintained on Pentasa. I had a colonoscopy last month that showed ulcers throughout my colon:/. The GI who did the scope wants be to start the SONIC treatment (150 imuran and remicade). Clearly I would prefer not to as I am feeling well for now and am nervous about the side effects.

I am going to UM for a second opinion before starting and will most likely do as the UM Dr. recommends and stay with them for treatment. I was hoping to get some idea of the types of questions I should be asking from the experts (forum members.

It is so comforting reading through posts! Thank goodness for this wonderful group!

Jennifer

Sorry if responses are coming in too late but you may want to talk to them about side effects of the drug (reading about them and talking to you doctor about them are two different things), you'll want to know how long the drugs will take affect, how long will you have to take them, will you eventually be taking only one of them once things get better, once your in remission what is there plan for maintenance medication? Is there another possible course of meds (I took Asacol, Prednisone, Entocort and 6MP at one time) besides Imuran and Remicade? Let them know that you're symptoms have changed but keep in mind that the ulcerations are likely still there and you still need a course of meds. Ask when they will do another scope to see what it looks like inside after a course of meds or are they just going to go by your symptoms (I prefer docs that play an active roll and look to be sure on top of blood work after such a serious amount of ulcers)?

Thank you for the response! I realize it was a pretty broad question. I probably need to narrow them down from now on:ylol:

Going to UM was for a second opinion initially, but after the appointment, I am definitely sticking to UM for care. The Dr. Recommended I have an MRI of my bowel to see if I have any narrowing from scar tissue. If not, then the plan is to start Imuran and after a year, do a colonoscopy and determine if I need to start Remicade as well. I like this plan much better than the route the Dr. at Botsford wanted to do. Now I just hope my MRI shows no narrowing.

Thanks, again!

Keep us posted on the MRI results! Glad things are working out for the better so far.