One of the treatments my daughter has had for her ulcerative colitis (UC) is REMICADE. She had it prior to her colectomy last May. While it worked temporarily it wasn’t the solution for her and she ended up having a total colectomy. Six weeks after the total colectomy she had her “take down” surgery where they create a “pouch” from the end of the small intestine to serve as a reservoir.
For practical purposes, after the “take down” surgery, to the outside world she appears 100% normal. Unfortunately, they leave a small amount of colon in place to connect the j-pouch to. In her case, her body was still upset with this small amount of colon and her colitis is still active.
As you can imagine, no one is interested in surgery OR “undoing” the takedown. So she has been put back on REMICADE and it appears to be working quite well. (Note once again, as before, numerous other more traditional and less expensive treatments were tried first)
Doing some internet searching, it turns out that REMICADE would not have been available to her in Canada for her treatments early this year. As a parent, I would find that beyond frustrating. Although it didn’t work for us, to not have that as an option, well you can have your Canadian health care system, just keep it in Canada.
Good news for Canadian parents with children suffering from UC, as of September 2011 REMICADE has been approved in Canada for pediatric patients.
Young Canadians living with the debilitating inflammatory bowel disease ulcerative colitis (UC) will now have access to a new treatment option with Health Canada’s approval of REMICADE® (infliximab) for use in pediatric patients (age six to 17 years). REMICADE® has been approved for the treatment of UC in adults in Canada since 2006.
