I am 44, and I had emergency surgery last Autumn, after I was finally diagnosed with Crohn's, I had a huge stricture in my descending colon, which ended up badly infected, despite numerous drugs, the only option left was to remove it. Since then I have continued on a low fibre diet, as my bowel cannot cope with anything else, even though I have now had diarrhoea for ten months, sometimes it is watery for no reason, and no warning. I was on Pentasa, but my consultant took me off this in order to see whether it was making my bowels loose, it made no difference. I have had recent tests (sigmoidoscopy/colonoscopy) and they are clear, but the diarrhoea/nausea/vomitting and arthritic pains in my shoulder and finger joints continued. My GP has tried me on Prednisolone 4x5mg/day, as I couldn't cope any longer with the symptoms, I have been taking them for almost two weeks, I need to have a check up this week. So far I've had a whole day when my stools were thicker, then they reverted to watery again, the nausea has ceased somewhat, the shoulder pain had finally become bearable. I have petit mal epilepsy which has become worse with these pills. My consultant has advised I keep the stoma, as Crohn's is unpredictable, I could become infected again if I had a reversal, also as I have no warning when the watery diarrhoea hits, so at least I have some dignity. My husband says I should go for the reversal, because if the steroids help my symptoms, and could as he sees it, eventually stop the diarrhoea completely, and prevent another flare up of crohn's, then there is no reason to not be reversed. My question is, would steroids/anti inflammatories prevent the recurrence of another flare up/infection, and diarrhoea, or is there still a chance that it will still happen, if so what risk is there please? personally, I feel safer to keep the stoma, as I like to have some control over my bowels, as much as I hate the bag, it feels the lesser of the two evils. I also need a prolapse op, which I should be having soon, can they make the stoma more stable, or 'permanent'? thankyou