Hi,
after my takedown in January, things were tough. 20 bm/day. Leaking sensations. Thickeners caused gas, but bowel showers, including tincture of opium, helped a little. My bottom got to hurting bad, but if thought it was butt burn, then hemerhoids. Turned out it was an abscess. When doc lanced it, he found it to be a fistula from anal cavity and gave me cipro & flagyl. WOW! Suddenly abscess gone and pouch felt fantastic and bm dropped to just 4-5 day! Wonderful!
after 10 day course of the antibiotics, things felt good for a month, but fistula 'bump' grew again and movements weren't quite as under control. 10 more days of cipro and a pouch scope. Doc says he saw 2 distinct ulcers in pouch and now, because of that and the fistula, thinks it could be crohns. He wanted to start me on Humira, and if fistula resolved, that would also diagnose it. Then he remembered I had been on remicade last year (for UC just prior to surgery, it didn't do the trick) and said for me to start remicade instead of Humira since we know i had no adverse reaction.
Questions! Anyone with similar experience/changed diagnosis? Can't fistulas be just an affect of the surgeries and not necessarily crohns? Two ulcers might just be pouchitis? Is remicade a superior or inferior option to Humira for this matter? Help, please! Thank you!