Hopes of starting remicade. What to expect

[Alec1]

So tomorrow is my appointment with my GI. I've been having flare like symptoms for a while now, even while taking prednisone. The next step is remicade and hopefully tomorrow we will begin to take that route. My one doctor told me that it would be a matter of about a week before I got the first infusion. My question is has anyone else taken remicade? What are the side effects? An how long does it take to start working!?!?

 

[Clash]

Hi Alec1, my son started Remicade last year in May, he was 16 at the time. He felt the benefits right away, it was a complete 180 from all of the symptoms he had been experiencing for some months.

Unfortunately, once we got past the loading doses he couldn't make the 8 week stretch without some symptoms starting to come back. The doc shortened the schedule, upped the dose and finally we added methotrexate. Things are going good right now.

He has no side effects from the Remicade, if they give him benedryl before his infusion it can make him sleepy afterward and he might take an hour nap on the drive home.

He has his infusion at the GI's IV lab so there are 8 or 10 recliners for the patients, they have a flat screen, xbox, wii and movies, you can also bring a movie, they have wifi so he brings his laptop sometimes. In the beginning, the infusion lasted about 3.5 hours but they have sped up the drip to 2 to 2.5 hours. The nurses provide snacks and drinks during the infusion. He isn't bothered by the IV and sometimes brings his school work to pass the time and stay caught up.

Hope all goes well at your appointment.

You may also want to check out this thread, it has a lot of members experiences with Remicade:

http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=4544

And here is the sub forum for remicade in the treatment forum:

http://www.crohnsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=58

 

[rrhood1]

Alec1:
I've been on Remicade for 2 years now. Humira & Imuran didn't work for me at all. I love my infusions (that sounds sort of weird) but I feel so good for the next week that I look forward to them. My Rheumatologist had to add Methotrexate & Sulfasalazine but finally I have no joint pain for the first time in 5 years. Flares are few and far between now and life has gone back to normal (or as normal as it ever was). My infusion clinic is great - wifi, big screen tv, snacks however I get so comfortable that I usually fall asleep for an hour during the infusion. I've never had a reaction & don't even take the Tylenol that they offer me before the infusion. I hope they go as we'll for you. All the best.