Remacaid Friend or Foe
Hi From Maine
On a run up to my first bowel resection, my Gastro had tried everything he had in his little black bag to shut down my Crohns, i.e. Asacol, Pred, Imuran, and several I have forgotten. I had all the faith in the world that he was doing his best to find the right cocktail of drugs that was the most effective for me. Nothing seemed to work except the Pred and I kept climbing the ladder of remission and on my return to 10 mg, the Crohns always returned with a vengeance. Finally, he decided to treat me with a Remacaid infusion. I had to travel 40 miles to another hospital for the IV.
It took about an hour and all the while they kept coming in and asking me how I felt and checking my blood pressure. At the end of the infusion, they kept me for a short while and sent me on my way.
About 2 weeks later on my follow up, I told my cd that there was no change positive or negative and that was that. I continued with my Pred and my many Colonoscopies until a section of my large bowel was so strictured, he advised surgical removal because the problem seemed centered in a one foot section of my colon. About 30 days after the surgery, old faithful returned and so did the high level of pred to try to shut down the Crohns.
My CD suggested that another round of Remacaid might work and so I had another infusion. There didn’t seem to be any improvement by my 2 week follow-up appointment, back to the Pred. A week later while at home, my joints started to ache, mostly centered in my arms and hands. I just didn’t feel good so I went to bed early in the evening. I felt like I was coming down with the flu. My wife was going out for awhile and I asked her for a glass of water. My muscles hurt so bad, it took both hands to hold onto the glass. I spilt some of the water from shaking so badly.
I heard my wife getting ready to leave so I got out of bed and walked down the hallway to see her off. The next thing I remember was seeing my wife looking down at me; I had passed out and hit the floor like a rock. An ambulance took me to the local hospital and they admitted me for three days and pumped me full of steroids to stop the reaction. I ended up with a bruised eye socket, a busted lip and a realization that I am allergic to Remacaid. I was never allergic to anything prior except Polycillian. I have read many posts of Remacaid usage and all with minor reactions, nothing that wasn’t manageable with salve for a rash and Tylenol for fever or headache. The human body is a marvelous thing but I guess we are all very individual under the skin. I think the good definitely out weighs the bad when it comes to Remacaid. The thing that got my attention was that the reaction didn’t happen until three weeks after the infusion. Pred was and is my only salvation against Crohns. I have been in remission sense the removal of my entire large colon. Surgery has had the CD at bay sense 2006. Its been five years and mostly symptom free. Bob E - Maine
