Uhm I have like ZERO sex drive now....I just thought it had to do with the horrible self esteem I have after prednisone helped me pack on 30 pounds???? Plus, my poor husband....yea as he said one day "I never know what hole you're bleeding out of so I just stay away..." (yea TMI, but hey that's this group!) Hoping things return to normal soon.

As far as remission, as you know, I too don't know what that is. I'm hoping for no pain during BM's, less blood (I'm beginning to think I will always have some blood), and less than 5 trips to the bathroom a day.....I'd be THRILLED with this.

From what I have read on here, it's different for everyone.
Remission for me: I have to keep taking my meds because I do not control my disease with diet. I am lucky enough that I can eat (mostly) what I want still and have no problems. I keep taking my meds because if I don't I will get back into the pain and complications that come along with UC.
The only problem with remission (haha, as if there could be one), is that I find that I feel so good I forget that I'm sick. So I will forget my meds, and then I end up flaring again because of my own stupidity.
When I'm in remission I have normal BM's, although certain things will still bother my stomach, so I steer clear. I do not have any mad dashes to the bathroom. The anxiety, for me it does subside. It subsides because that feeling of normal is like heaven!! After not feeling it for so long it's almost like a high.
I hope that someday very soon you get to experience this too and not just have to read about it!
Good luck! =)

Remission is different for everyone at it's best it can seem like you have no disease at all; you can eat what you want, you don't worry about having to rush to the bathroom, "normal" life resumes. Unfortunately not everyone acheives remission and even for those that do it's rarely permanent and almost never with ot at least some meds.
Remission should be the goal of treatment

Sign me up on the ZERO sex drive bandwagon! I can't imagine anyone who has diarrhea (be it for one day or 2 years, like myself) has a healthy sex drive. Not to mention all the other fantastic symptoms we deal with. I hope you have an understanding partner.

My ideal remission would be no meds and to be "normal" again, a BM once a day, eating what I want etc. However I'd settle with less than 5 X's a day and at least to have some form of control about how quickly I need a toilet when I get the urge would be wonderful! (Have not hit remission yet either)

Remission for me is being in control of UC/CD...and not it controlling me. It is more submission then remission.
I submit to the fact I have CD/UC.
I submit that I can't eat like everyone else and not have issues.
I submit to eating the most healthy diet I can to avoid flares.

I have no flares & feel my best when I stick with a good diet made just for me! I
Am I in remission? Maybe not but I'm in control!!!
I'm avoiding flares - If I went back to eating foods causing my flares I'd be in serious trouble...
I can do anything and eat anything (Just avoid certain dairy and limit high amounts of sugar... no drugs needed)
I do ache some days... joints, knees and feet, but I figure by the time I figure what is helpful. Heck I will be old and it'll be normal for my age! (The old woman who lived in a shoe!!!)

My remission means staying on my medication regimen. 4 Lialda, 75mg. of Imuran and when I flare Hydrocort enemas. Yes the enemas are a pain but it puts the medicine topically where the inflamation is. Knowing that the enemas work has taken the stress of flaring away and I am doing great now. Normal once a day bm, no urgency, no pain, no blood or mucos, and I can eat whatever I want as long as I don't have an overload of fiber in one day. I usually know I have achieved remission when I can pass gas and it is just gas. I never thought I would be this happy over normal pooping, but I am ready to do cartwheels on the front lawn.

Well, I feel as if I am in remission (medically induced). I have come off all meds, my decision and I am still ok, but I have yet to see if I will stay in remission. I do watch what I eat, I try and avoid wheat and dairy and fried foods. Also my sex drive is non existent, but I also have endometriosis therefore my stomach either hurts because of the endometriosis or the crohns, so sex is out of the question

I often wonder about remission too so its great to hear everyones stories. I had completely given up hope on remission but I think I am really close. I have been on Sulfasalazine and Colifoam Enemas (every other day until I feel better) for two weeks now. This is the closest to normal I have felt in a very long time. I still watch what I eat some but I planing on experimenting with some of my trigger foods soon, I miss popcorn soooo much!

Some of my anxiety is slowly starting to go away only because I am not running for the bathroom now I feel I have a little more control. Still working on the fear its hard to get rid of once its there and no one understands that until you have lived with it. Not that I am trying to brag but I have never had any problems with sex drive.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the responses. I kind of thought from what you guys said that everyones disease is different and some of us never achieve remission. My time may come and it may not we will just have to see. Patience grasshopper! Got way to excited with my new treatment and docs and have not even given it enough time yet, as I said PATIENCE. Not one of my virtues at times unfortunately. Need to live one day at a time and squeeze all the good out. Wish good health for you all. Charlie

I'm not sure if i am in remission or not, all I know is that i have not seen any blood or mucus in a very long time, and there is no pain. I still have to go on average about 5 times a day, mostly in the morning, but firm not watery. My doc says that I am doing well, but am still on my Lialda. I can eat a lot more now than I could before, but still have to stay away from certain foods. I ate sweet italian sausage and thought I was going to die, but I can now eat dairy and even fried foods without pain. Maybe if I could stay away from the dairy and sugar maybe I would go less than 5 times, but 5 is much better than 15 to 20, so I deal with it. This is the closest I have been to normal since diagnosed. I have also lost my sex drive, It's hard to feel romantic when you go through what we have gone through, but then again also, I am much older than you are. I am turning 55 next month, so that might have something to do with it, not sure.
Good luck with everything, hope your life gets back to " normal " soon!!!!

I'm in remission. I take Imuran (Azathioprine) to maintain remission. But Prednisone is only for actual inflammation. So if you are in remission, you won't need prednisone. So far, those two have not affected libido (thank goodness). The clinical way to know if you are indeed in remission is a conoloscopy or flex sig (if you have UC) not sure about Crohn's. I just returned from an appointment with Dr. Rubin at the University of Chicago...a renouned IBD specialist and a leader in IBD research. He says you can say your are in remission if: 1. No Blood 2. No mucus 3. No urgency 4. you do not wake at night to have a BM 5. Stools are formed (not runny)

one more thing about the prednisone and remission: you have to be 90 days free from prednisone & still symptom-free to consider yourself to be in remission.

Yeah, bluntly, prednisone does seem to have the effect of taking an awful lot of the lead out of my pencil, it's also making my hair fall out.

Then again, I also think losing a hundred and ten pounds had a lot to do with killing my sex drive, but I think the prednisone helps keep it from being what it was before the disease hit. I'm almost off it now, so I'll be able to say more for it once I cut that final 5mg this week.

Before I ever got diagnosed with UC, I knew a guy that had it, and I noticed the weight loss, the weight gain and listened to him when he complained about the prednisone. Little did I know that I'd wind up in the same boat, but it gave me a reasonable idea of what to expect when the doctor told me I was going on prednisone -- I knew that the drug had a myriad of unpleasant side effects. Having a lowered (not entirely destroyed, thank god) libido isn't as bad as having my teeth hurt everytime I drink a cold glass of milk though.

That's probably TMI, but yeah, that's this group. ;)