Diary of a Crohn’s Flare: Abscess Redux

When I last gave a status on how things were going, I had to complete the pre-Remicade testing (for TB, Hepatitis, fungal infections, etc.) and then see the doctor for the final confirmation that we were going to do the Remicade.

I completed all of this during the week of 6/1 - 6/6 and everything was “go for launch!” However, on Monday 6/8, I came down with a moderately high fever (100.6 or so), felt REALLY bad, experienced a rapid heartbeat (>110 bpm), and rapid respiration (I later learned these were signs of sepsis).  I called the doctor and he scheduled me for a CT scan to look for an abscess the very next day.

The CT scan revealed that I had another abscess – so I had to postpone the Remicade infusion until the abscess cleared up.  In the meantime, he put me on oral antibiotics again (ciprofloxacin 500 mg bid and Flagyl 500 mg tid).  The planned course of treatment was 2 weeks with a follow-up CT scan to confirm the abscess healed up.

This is an image of my first abscess (the second one was a bit larger but probably in the same location):

I wish my life were so easy.