I was diagnosed 11 1/2 years ago at the age of 19, and my case was very severe (life support, plasmapheresis (sp?) and all). I was on Prednisone for 6 months and Leukeran for 1 year. I have been in remission and off all WG related meds since I took the last chemo-pill. I can honestly say I'm not too bothered by the WG in my everyday life.
However, I HAVE had a bunch of medical problems, and I'm not sure if any are related to what happened all those years ago. I've had gall stones w/ gb removal, have Crohn's like symptoms, had a blood clot in my lung, melanoma, pleurisy and shingles. Like I said, don't know if there's a connection, or if I've just been cursed with a lousy health.........!
But yes, you CAN go in remission, and so far I've stayed there. My doctors still can't quite agree on whether I have WG or MPA, but WG was my original diagnosis. I was told the first 7 years are the critical ones. If you go that long w/o relapsing, there's a bigger chance it won't come back, but I guess nothing can be guaranteed.
BTW, does anyone know the numbers of WG patients in the US? In Denmark there's only about 200, but there's also only 5,4 million people in the entire country, so I assume the number is considerably higher over here
)