New Member from UK - Are the treatments in the USA the same?

Hi! Glad to have found a forum! I have had Crohn's Disease for 22 years and so far have had the usual treatments with Prednisolone <which resulted in osteoporosis>, Asacol, Azathioprine, etc. So far, fingers crossed, no operations. However in the last few years I have found life increasingly unbearable and have become a virtual recluse. I developed a flare up about 6 weeks ago and went on a course of steroids which didn't work. Ended up in hospital 2 days ago, they tried to persuade me to stay in dripped up but chose to return home with the medication as the hospital had a violent outbreak of the Noro Virus <last thing I need!>. Whilst in there saw a young gastro doctor who has put me on a weird combo of drugs and I just wondered if anyone else had been on this: Prednisolone, 2400mg Asacol, 250mg x 2 Ciprofloxacin, 400mg x 3 Metronidazale, 50mg Mercaptupurine, Movicol, Forceval, Adcal x 2 and Alendronic Acid weekly. Some of these meds I was already on but the massive doses of the anti-biotics are a new one to me as I do not have an infection. The Mercaptupurine I understand is an oral chemo drug similar to azathioprine. I feel sick and am still losing weight <down to 7st 10>, can anyone cheer me up by saying they have had great results from this combo of meds??

Hello, welcome to the forum.

There are some treatments that are less common or not used in the UK that are used in the US.. partly this is because some treatments are experimental and others are very expensive.

As for combinations of meds, everyone is different. There are people that have used similar combinations and had great results. I have been given antibiotics before and there is some debate as to the effectiveness in crohns. Some even feel they make it worse as they kill the natural bacteria too, you might want to take some probiotics to help with this.
It may take some fiddling to get the right results and it's important to keep contact with a GI and reporting any changes (or no changes) .

I just did a forum search and found this for you , again, remember not everyone is the same so what works for one might not work for another and what affects one person negatively might be brilliant for another.

http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=7942

It is important that when it comes to infections antibiotics are very useful and save a lot of lives. When i had IV antibiotics in hospital last year, I came out feeling like a new person, even though no infection was pinpointed.

We also have a treatment forum -

http://www.crohnsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16

with a pred subforum that you might find helpful since your on such a high dose -

http://www.crohnsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=80

I hope this helps you out a bit. Feel free to ask any questions you have.

thanks for your reply - i am taking a probiotic at the mo - glad to hear others have had similar meds xx:hug:

Thanks for the links am looking now xx

Hi Jammy , Yes I am a member of this group, thanks for the link , hope to see you soon , I want to ask ppl about the questran so will start a new link tommorow xx lots of hugs n xx , dante sends love to you xx