How quick stelara works?

[Svinez]

Hello everyone, I have been diagnosed with Crohn's disease for several years. Now I have changed infliximab, entyvio, and upadacitinib, due to 0 effect or side effects, the effective one was rinvoq ( furunculosis, boils etc) . Now I’m being given Stelara, how quickly does this medicine work, it’s now 6 weeks since my first Stelara and I haven’t noticed much of an effect. How fast does it work? thank you for your responses.

 

[Scipio]

It's variable. For me it took about two weeks to start to notice improvements. For others it sometimes takes a couple of months.

 

[my little penguin]

Took 8 months for my kiddo
BUT … he was at 90 mg every 8 weeks for 5-6 months before insurance approved Stelara at 90 mg every 4 weeks
Two months of every 4 weeks and my kiddo was good .
That was 6 years ago

 

[Crohn2357]

Took 8 months for my kiddo
BUT … he was at 90 mg every 8 weeks for 5-6 months before insurance approved Stelara at 90 mg every 4 weeks
Two months of every 4 weeks and my kiddo was good .
That was 6 years ago

Has he been on stelara ever since, in remission? How much oral mtx does he also take?

 

[my little penguin]

He is still on Stelara and takes 20 mg of oral mtx.
He has juvenile arthritis and crohns .
The mtx is for the arthritis.
All scopes / imaging /bloodwork /fecal cal has been good since .
His fecal cal /bloodwork did go up the one time insurance pushed to have him prove he needed every 4 weeks.
He took one dose at every 6 weeks and labs went up but back to normal after that at every 4 weeks

 

[Svinez]

thanks for the answers, I'll probably have to wait at least 16 weeks, since I've tried all the drugs except methotrexate, if Stelara doesn't work, I'll have to take Rinvoq or MTX

 

[asadmom]

My son was seeing improvements in symptoms around week 3 after the initial infusion and his calpro was < 50 around week 3 too. He was on Humira prior to the switch. No mtx.

I heard from quite a bit of people that Stelara can take a while. I hope it works for you soon!

 

[Svinez]

A somewhat strange drug to be honest . Because I have a thickening in the intestinal wall (ultrasound examination) from 3.5 to 7 mm (in the middle of the colon), and the calprotectin level is a ridiculous 13 when the norm is 50. Although all the tests (blood C-protein etc) are excellent, the intestines still hurt once or twice a month .

 

[my little penguin]

Unfortunately thickening can be inflammation or it can be scar tissue
Inflammation can be reduced
But nothing can be done for scar tissue except to remove it .
Hope things work soon

fecal cal of 13 is great
My kiddo sits at 15 when things are good