Struggling

I'm really struggling right now with this whole Crohn's thing. I'm not having a flare up right now, thanks to the prednisone. However, the prednisone is the problem. It's not good to be on it long term at any point in one's life, but it can cause a myriad of problems in pregnancy....gestational diabetes and cleft lip, just to name two fun ones. I'm sure if I googled "prednisone and pregnancy" I'd find all kinds of scary stuff, but one thing I learned when diagnosed with Crohn's - only go to WebMD or the CDC for any medical related information on the internet!

I went to see my GI yesterday and he's on board with me starting back up with the Remicade that I stopped as soon as I found out I was pregnant. The last infusion I had was the day before we went to China, so it's been awhile. I asked my GI to call my OB so they could chat and make sure everyone was on the same page about Remicade (the last time I talked to the nurse for my OB she said in a lighthearted voice "Dr. Linfoot's perfectly fine with you going ahead with the Remicade! Do you have a prescription for it currently?" "Um....no....it's not something you just go pick up at the pharmacy. And on that note, I really need her to talk to my GI, cause that SCARES me that she knows so little about it.")

Fast forward to today. GI has talked to OB and I get the call from GI's physician's assistant today to tell me the good news that everyone's on board and the GI has already put in the order at the infusion place and they should be calling me to schedule my next infusion in the next day or so. Great, right? I immediately get off the phone and start crying. I know intellectually that I pretty much have to do this - going into a full blown Crohn's flare could prove disasterous. I know this. I've talked to my absolute favorite doctor in the world, my GI from UF, and he's always said he believes Remicade is safe in pregnancy, much safer than the mother flaring up. He wanted me to stay on it while pregnant with Carrie, but by some miracle I felt completely Crohn's free for the entire pregnancy. But for some reason it just scares the hell out of me. Maybe it's the fact that it means being hooked up to an IV for three hours? Maybe it's the hormones? I have no clue. None of it makes sense to me. I know it will make me feel better. I know it will prevent me from getting those stomach cramps after eating. I know it's safer for me and baby to get the medicine twice while pregnant than to stay on the steroids. But it still scares me. But I'm going to do it, hopefully later this week or first thing next week. I go see the OB tomorrow AM, so I'm sure we'll chat about it as well.

Wish me (or us, rather, since it's me and #2) good luck.