Plan E

Climbed by year and month

Climbed by year and month

All the other Plans have either not worked well enough: Elemental, excellent response, but not enough. Or I didn't tolerate: azathioprine, mercaptopurine, and methotrexate we had to come up with another plan.

There are three options:

1) Do nothing. Not advisable, I have active inflammation and ulceration in my Terminal Ileum and it needs to be dealt with otherwise I'll be needing surgery all too soon. And we don't want to start down that road because once on it I'll need further surgery every few years.

2) 5-ASA drugs, like Pentasa or Asacol formulations of mesalazine. Not effective enough, only in the region of 10% effectiveness compared to azathioprine.

3) Move on to the biologics like Humira.

Reluctantly I agreed to go for option 3. It's relatively new, only being used in treating Crohn's for 3 years or so. To get it I will have to go back into the NHS. My consultant will write to my GP asking him to refer me to him at Addenbrooke's. He will then pass me on to the IBD nurses to do all the screening for TB and infections or whatever it is. And then train me, and I hope Paul, to do the injections at home.

Fun times ahead I think. However it will apparently take a couple of months or so for it all to happen. I'm guessing around 4 months. So maybe March time?