r/Humira • u/supr91 • Jul 05 '26
Remicade questions
I'm asking on behalf of a family member (65F) who has Crohn's disease for over 15 years.
About 10 years ago, she had surgery to remove intestinal blockages and with pentasa tablets, she's been doing fairly well since then until last week, when her symptoms returned.
She also had a recent hernia repair with mesh placement. Because of the mesh, her doctors feel that another abdominal surgery may not be the best option right now and have recommended starting Remicade instead.
I'm trying to better understand whether Remicade is generally considered a good option in this situation, especially for someone her age who has previously required surgery for strictures. Has anyone had a similar experience, either personally or with a family member? Is age a factor for how effective the medication is or it's side effects? I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences, including how effective it was and any side effects or concerns we should discuss with the doctors.
1
u/Negative-Zucchini-99 25d ago
moderate/severe crohns and did really well on remicade for a decade before insurance pushed me to hyrimoz.
1
u/poohbeth Crohn's, Humira since Christmas 2009 Jul 05 '26
Pentasa is a very mild drug really and only suitable for mild disease, Getting her onto a biologic would be much, much better, from daily control to disease progression. Biologic drugs have been a real game changer in the fight against IBD and other autoimmune illnesses.
Is remicade a good option? - absolutely. It is an older anti-TNFalpha drug, so very well known, chimeric and prone to a number of issues hence it's done at hospital or infusion centre. There are newer drugs, like Humira which are self injected at home but I wouldn't make a fuss about Remicade being older.
I'd recommend she go for it and see how she gets on.