New and looking for suggestions/support

I am a new member but have been looking to this forum for quite a while for information. I was originally diagnosed with Crohns 13 years ago when I was 38. I had symptoms for years that were diagnosed as something else but with multiple abdominal abscess surgery finally led to the correct diagnosis. I started on Purinethol and Cipro and was pretty much stable after a couple of years and was off of meds. Flash forward to Dec 2012, immediately following the death of my mother, and Crohns was back in full force. Peri-anal abscess with fistula, severe joint pain, severely anemic with hgb of 5 and no stored iron levels, oh and kidney stone which is apparently common for Crohns. Started on Entocort and had multiple blood and iron transfusions. Had abscess drained and then surgery to plug. After several months I thought everything was healed for about a month. Now fistula has re-opened, concerned about another abscess and possibly a few new areas, joint pain returning. Have come to the realization that anything I eat needs to be soft and mushy. Waiting for insurance approval to start Remacaid. Very nervous about that. Also, debating on whether or not to get back to surgeon. Not sure he can do anything since last procedure didn't work. Oh...and got a notice that insurance denied claim for that surgery because it's considered experimental and does not have enough evidence that it is effective. Wish someone had told me that before hand. Anyway, feeling defeated and distraught. It's my child's senior year and I don't want him to have another stressful year like last year and suddenly I'm sick again. Would like to know what I can expect from Remacaid too. Sorry for the lengthy post.

Wow, you poor thing. That's a lot to go through! It's good that you are going to start Remicade, though. That is THE BEST medicine for treating (and preventing) peri-anal Crohn's activity. Hopefully that will just clear everything up for you quickly. There is a fistula, fissure, and abscess support group on here that is awesome, you may want to check that out (http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=47942).

Thanks for your response. I will definitely check out the fistula group. The pros of Remicade seem to outweigh the cons. It's all pretty scary though. Taking it one day at a time.