Further thoughts: Seeing that you're on sulfasalazine, that too should be a suspect for allergic reaction. Also, the red dots on your lower legs might be what's called 'petechiae,' which are like...
I too worry that you're being undertreated and not taken seriously enough. I would think you'd be in the hospital on IV, liquid diet or very bland personalized diet, IV steroids, and waiting for...
It can be tricky to figure out what causes your hives. It's *possible* you're allergic to the antihistamine, or to some ingredient that comes with it, but that's pretty rare. Or you could have...
Where are you located? I would suggest a very bland diet for the time being, as others have suggested. Applesauce, white rice, banana, chicken (not fried, no skin), fish, ground turkey, avocado or...
Yes, it is possible to be celiac with IgA positive but IgG negative. The upper endoscopy with biopsies will confirm one way or the other. Upper endoscopy with biopsies is the gold standard to confirm...
Celiac is worth ruling out - it's a simple blood test. It's sometimes caught with an upper endoscopy, but sometimes missed on that test too if they're not really looking for it. And it causes...
Aluminum is not considered a heavy metal....
That's a good idea to go with her if possible. There are definitely treatments to try. In general she's right that micro colitis is considered milder than UC. It almost never requires biologics for...
The liquid version of pepto-bismol has contained magnesium aluminum silicate for decades now. It's used as a thickener. The pills don't have any, as far as I know. What is the concern?...
There is probably a genetic risk component with this, just as with IBD and other so-called 'autoimmune' diseases. It's also most common in women, and particularly in women in their 60s, 70s, and...
Does she know which type of microscopic colitis she has? (lymphocytic or collagenous) My mother also has microscopic colitis (as does her sister). Both have the lymphocytic type, and it comes and...
As for taking a z-pak for a sinus infection, that was a common treatment. I say "was" because many doctors no longer treat sinus infections by initially prescribing a z-pak. Zithromax has been...
Most people don't have any side effects from Stelara....
Is the nosebleed always the same side? Have you had it (inside your nose) looked at by an ear/nose/throat specialist? Usually nosebleeds come from the septum - the cartilage wall that divides the two...
Nope....
Hi, yes, we mostly correspond on the Crohn's forum, but I also follow this section (for lupus) and the UC section. I have Crohn's, and I've also been diagnosed with Undifferentiated Connective Tissue...
Following you over from the Crohn's forum. :-) There is no definitive blood test for lupus. There are several that are correlated (to varying degrees) to having SLE, but there is no single test that...
If you're failing Humira, the first thing to do is to try to figure out why. That requires measuring trough levels and checking for antibodies. Then you go from there. The next med you would try...
Yeah, she should get the antibody test for Remicade - I forgot to mention that. But it's kind of a separate issue from drug-induced lupus. She could have antibodies to Remi without having...
Oh, regarding Stelara, not it's not another anti-TNF. It blocks interleukin 12 and 23, which are also inflammatory cytokines, but not the same as TNF....
The metabolites are 6-MMP and 6-TGn. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5307263/ I'm not sure that the ranges of therapeutic levels are the same for Behcet's as they are for IBD. They may...
Sorry to hear of the continued struggles and the roller coaster ride. The good news is that the nurse is wrong. A positive ANA test doesn't mean she has lupus. At most, it means she *might* have...
Good luck with her scope, and let us know what they find. I've heard iron infusions can cause lots of potential side effects. If drug-induced lupus (d-ile) is suspected, she should get further blood...
Nitpicking, but versed isn't valium. They're both benzodiazepines, yes, but they're not the same drug. Versed is midazolam, while valium is diazepam. Versed is more potent, quicker acting, and has a...
Sure. You wrote: "The Atlantic isn't a scientific source. Media propaganda isn't a source." This is a clear attempt to smear The Atlantic without actually debating any of the points made in the...
If you had bothered to read the article instead of using ad hominens, you would have seen that the article quotes several prominent immunologists and vaccine scientists. No, the article is not a...
It's a gross over-simplification to categorize vaccines as either sterilizing or non-sterilizing. The myth of sterilizing vaccines:...
Yes, an ALT of 87 is only mildly/slightly elevated. At one point mine was in the 500s (due to reasons not well understood when I was really sick), and a week later it was back to normal....
By 'trough levels,' it means testing for levels if infliximab (remicade) right before it's time for the next infusion, like the day before or even the morning before the infusion. Right after an...
Drugs like imuran (azathioprine) and 6-mp have fallen out of favor in the last few years. The biologics have higher success rates, work faster, and have lower risks of side effects. The downside of...
Have the docs ordered a stool test to check for fecal occult blood? When you say she's not showing any Remicade in her body, is that from a recent blood test for trough levels? Did they also check...
Why were you put on clindamycin?...
Hmm, I'm not sure what to tell you. I don't understand how the GI can say there was erosive gastritis seen on endoscopy but biopsies were normal - unless the gastritis is spotty, and they happened to...
Serum folate is a short-term measure of blood levels of folate, and since it's short-term it can vary/fluctuate day-to-day depending on what is eaten. RBC FOL is red blood cell folate, which is a...
Let us know what the biopsy report says when you get it. With upper endoscopies, they usually go into the duodenal bulb (the very first part), but they may or may not go past that. For me, the doc...
For the erosive gastritis, what have the biopsies there shown? That would be important to know. Do you take NSAIDs like aspirin or ibuprofen? Do you drink a lot of alcohol? Those can cause erosive...
How was the MCTD diagnosed? What were your blood test results and what were your symptoms? I thought that using plaquenil to keep the MCTD from progressing to lupus was an old-school thought that has...
How high were your positive ANA levels (usually reported in titers)? Drug induced lupus usually has high ANA titers, plus positive anti-histone antibodies. Systemic lupus (not drug-induced) usually...
What were your exact tests and results? Positive ANA alone doesn't necessarily mean you have systemic lupus (SLE) or drug-induced lupus (d-ile). There are several possible reasons for elevated ANAs,...
You just cherry-picked a quote out of context. You should have included this in your quoting of that article: "To help fill that void, researchers at France’s Strasbourg University Hospital recruited...
From your link: "During the symposia, some experts recommended limiting the practice of switching patients to a second anti-TNF inhibitor when factors other than immunogenicity were the driver for...
Here's one of many https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4737871/...
There is a difference between "failing" an anti-TNF due to being a primary non-responder and "failing" an anti-TNF due to developing antibodies after having a successful run of a few years. If you...
Has an infectious disease doc been consulted? What stool tests have been done for pathogens besides the standard panels? In other words, have they tested for other offenders besides the common ones...
I have no experience with iron infusions, sorry. I do know that low iron & hemoglobin is relatively common in women, and it's also relatively common in people with IBD. So for women with IBD, it's...
Any family history of IBD, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, etc?...
Keep in mind that back pain is probably the most common health problem worldwide. It hits nearly everybody at some point, to some degree. There are specific types of inflammatory arthritis that can...
Your GI should know that people with IBD have higher rates of inflammatory arthritis, and your GI should take an interest and investigate yours. Since he/she doesn't seem to be doing much or showing...
What did the Prometheus blood panel say regarding Crohn's or IBD in general?...
Which joints? Is there redness and/or swelling at the joints? Does it get worse when Crohn's activity gets worse? What Crohn's med(s) are you on? It could be lots of things - unrelated to crohn's,...