whats going on with the lungs

After my second round of prednisone treatment (which I am still on after 4 months and counting...), my lung nodules are completely gone.  I got a CT scan on Friday 4/9 and Dr B. reports that my lungs are "normal."  Hallelujah.

I am currently taking 10mg of prednisone a day and have been for 4½ weeks now.  Once we get my bloodwork back (hopefully TODAY!) and it shows that the MPO titer is still close to zero, he'll drop me to 5 mg daily for four weeks.  Then I see him again in the office and hopefully we'll go down to 5 mg every other day, which he mentioned was the tentative plan.  This tapering process will be much slower than last time.  We do not want the nodules to return.

Side note:  MPO titer in blood is an inflammatory marker.  For some reason it has trended simultaneously with the level of inflammation in my lungs:  High MPO = lots of inflammation.  It has served a good purpose in monitoring my disease without having to do CT scans and chest x-rays at every Dr. visit.

After I finally get done with this steroid taper, Dr B won't put me on them again.  We will hunt for other options, such as Imuran or Cimzia.  He and the GI doc will work together on this.

My stomach is still doing fine.  My diet is not so strict right now, yet I still don't have any GI symptoms of Crohn's.