Anxiety?

[Josalyn7]

My Gi doctor wants to stop my remicade are so the infection on my arm. I'm consider severe on my chart. Remicade saved my life. Will my Crohn's come out the remission. They want me to take 2 or more antibiotics. Only problem is my c.diff will come back. Has anyone stopped cold turkey on remicade?

 

[Cosmojo]

Yea its pretty standard to just stop Remicade, no need to dose it down because the medication has a certain lifetime in your body so it will take months to be completely out of your system. That being said its effectiveness fades faster than that.
If your doctor is suggesting other treatments they must think they can keep you in remission OR that the chances of falling out of remission outweigh the risks. Also I don't know a lot about c.diff but it doesn't just come back with antibiotics...
I stopped Remicade and I felt great! Don't worry too much if your doctor says you have a severe case they won't take changing your treatment plan lightly.

 

[theOcean]

I stopped Remicade cold turkey -- it isn't something you need to taper off of. You just have to be careful because you generally can't go back on it once you stop -- it's easier to build up antibodies to than other biologics.

 

[Patricia56]

There is no need to taper Remicade. The problem is starting back up again. The window for restarting Remicade is usually considered to be 16 weeks. If you go past that then your chances of having a severe reaction go up. That said, other people have gone longer than that and been able to restart with no problem.

Can't say if you will flare - not everyone does just because they miss a treatment.

If the infection in your arm is severe (sounds like it) then you need to stop and get that cleared up before it goes systemic. That could kill you or cause you to need antibiotics for a lot longer.

Yeah, the c. diff might come back. But not necessarily. Just keep an eye on it and if you get symptoms get tested right away so they can start you on Flagyl ASAP.

sorry to hear your troubles. Hope they pass quickly and you get feeling great soon.