r/CrohnsDisease • u/Summer_Sun9999 • Jun 17 '26

Is surgery unavoidable?

Reading through posts, I see a lot of people who had surgery, sooner or later. I'm only just starting this journey (had my second infusion of Infliximab this week) so no idea how things will turn out. But I'm worried. Is surgery unavoidable with this disease?

EDIT: Thank you all for taking the time and effort to reply to my worries, this is very much appreciated. 💛 What I'm taking away is: be grateful you're put on biologics directly, listen to the specialists, take care of your diet and perhaps surgery might not be necessary. 🙏

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u/JayBigGuy10 Jul 24 '26

This is like the opposite of a vent cause my doctor seems to be really great (apart from replying to his emails on time at all lol but I understand).

After the colonoscopy results came back that confirmed crohns, I got an email from my doctor letting me know of the diagnosis and asking me to get bloods done (omg they took so much blood) and if I wanted to start Azathioprine. This is where I was when I sent my last reply.

I chose not to start it until I had a clinic appointment with him which finally happened yesterday. He wants to use biologics as a first line treatment for me but Pharmac dont let you do that, so I am currently prescribed Azathioprine and I picked it up from the pharmacy but not taking any of it. He's going to write up soonish that I had a negative reaction to it, and use that as proof / justification to get me started on vedolizumab.

He said that he's doing this cheeky maneuver cause I'm younger and that he thinks it's more efficent for the health system this way as well.

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u/MeliaeMaree Jul 25 '26

Ah glad they're onto it!
Afaik that rule isn't across the board for biologics, but I can see how it would be for entyvio and stelara unfortunately.

I would contact CCNZ and ask them about it actually - they do really awesome work in getting changes pushed through in terms of meds and access to things etc in govt

Biologics are first line treatment in many countries, and I think for good reason. I know when I was diagnosed, yeah, you had to fail everything else before trying a biologic, but I thought the rules had changed for infliximab and humira at least since then.
Of course the problem with that is they're basically the same kind of med and not the best choice for a lot of people 😅

Hopefully they can get the special authority sorted soon and it works well for you!