My doctor says the only option is a surgery!(colostomy bag)

I found out that i had chrons when i was 16 and my gasterologist has always used remicade. which that worked for a long time, but its not working anymore. not only is it not helping, i am starting to have allergic reactions to it for some reason. so he has already sent me to a surgeon and said that removing part of my colon is the only option i had left. he says that there is nothing else that he could do. remicade is the only thing i've been given to treat it! there has to be something else that may work. right now the only thing that i am on is metronidazole.
Sorry for rambling im bad about that. My question is has something else worked for someone besides remicade. My doctor said that is the best out there. I only have medicade, so it would have to be paid through that. My other question is that how bad is it having to wear a bag? The surgeon made it sound like it was really bad. I am just really scared because i have to figure something out.

[jamie2462]

Hi Greeneyes,

I do not personally have a bag, but like you, when my doctor mentioned it may be an option I talked to people. There are 3 people I know from the small town where I grew up that have this bag and one of them has had it for 10 years and I did not even know that she did.
I asked her about it and she told me that she was always having surgeries, and treatments and constant flare ups but now that she has the bag she has not had any of the flare ups or pain. I think she had one flare up but this was right after her surgery, but as her colon was gone it was some of the surrounding tissue which quickly went away.
The other two people had similar stories. It took them a little while to  get used to having thebag, but they said even having it, that they were no longer in pain and just the difference from being in pain all the time to not being in pain made adjusting to the bag all that much easier.

I know that regardless of what we all say it is a scary thought at first, or at least I was scared when they mentioned it to me, but rather than be in pain, if that was my only other option....at least you wouldn't hurt anymore.

As far as the drugs, I am on remicade/imuran and countless antibiotics for my fistulas so I don't know exactly what would be better than that, but if you are nervous you could always ask for a second opinion couldn't you?

Best of luck, and will be watching to see how you do.
Much Love.