Infusion?

[xoxava]

infusion?

Got my second remicade infusion today. They almost stopped it bc my bp kept going up. Why does this happen? And when should my stomach stop hurting?

 

[Jennifer]

I dunno when your stomach will stop hurting (I've never taken it) but as for the high blood pressure I found this:

"Side effects such as low or high blood pressure, chest pain, difficulty breathing, rash, itching, fever and chills may occur during or shortly after administration. These reactions could indicate an allergy to the drug. They are more common among patients who develop antibodies to infliximab and are less likely to occur in patients who are taking drugs that suppress the immune system, such as methotrexate. Infliximab should be discontinued if serious reactions occur." http://www.medicinenet.com/infliximab/article.htm

I hope you aren't allergic to it.

 

[kiny]

And when should my stomach stop hurting?

It stopped hurting within 24 hours for me the last time, getting a new shot on friday. Will be my 3rd in 10 years time.

I asked my doctor this a few days ago and he said it should stop hurting by the next day. It should bring your inflammation down almost immediately, then the healing process should start. I guess it depends how serious your inflammation was and how damaged your intestins were at the time.


As far as high BP, I think that could be a lot of things. What DOES happen sometimes is that your body has developed an immune response to Infliximab. That's why I will get my infliximab over a period of 3 hours, really really slowly. Your body doesn't really know what infliximab is, it perceives it as an intrusion, so some people react heavily to it. The longer time you leave between each infusion, the bigger the response will be, because your body will have developed antibodies. The more you administer infliximab the less the response will be because your body sort of "gives up" fighting against the infliximab.

I've never had a bad response to infliximab, although I have seen people react badly to it and the response can be really heavy and they stop the infusion immediately and then either try to use something else like humira or try to administer it really really slowly.

If you ever get infliximab again make sure you mention this, just slowing the infusion down is all it takes for most people.

 

[xoxava]

Thanks for the replies. I got mine in a 3 hr period as well. I had runny d and stomach pain 4 days before and now the stomach pain is still there (bad enough I can't get out of bed or walk and I'm in tears at points) I hope this stuff is working its my last hope I hate living on pain pills laying in bed all day ugh!

 

[kiny]

Sorry Xox, is it hurting that much? Are they giving you imuran too or just remicade? About 50% of patients go into remission after remicade, it's 60% if the add imuran to a remicade regiment. There's still humira if remicade doesn't work for you. Hope you feel better soon.

 

[xoxava]

yeah its killing me. I don't even eat but maybe once a day and it comes out. and no the only meds I'm on is the remicade. should I ask for something else too?

 

[kiny]

I would ask them about imuran at least, it's fine to take in combination with infliximab, the two complement each other. (Imuran is slow working though, so they give critical patients antibiotics and entocort here when they come into ER, but imuran improves infliximab (remi) ).

I'm interested in your case because I'm getting remi too in a few days. I was in horrible pain too, curled up in my bed for days, then eventually fainted from the pain and loss of blood. Went to ER and then got Augmentin (an antibiotic to keep inflammation down), imuran (to prepare me for infliximab), and now inflixmab on friday. I take pentasa too, anyone can take that, they're just tiny balls that protect your intestins when you eat, you don't digest them often, they relieve a bit of pain for me usually.

They look like this, they're harmless:

NAISD painkillers make Crohn's worse btw, oh I found that out the hard way. You can use other ones though, like paracetamol.

Hmm, hope you improve.

 

[xoxava]

I called my nurse to ask the Dr about trying imuran as well. I've lost a lot of blood too. I tried pred and entocort but they did nothing. They always fill me up with diluadid at the er n send me home with percocet. I felt good after my first infusion but then had runny d and extreme pain for 4 days. Now the pain in still present. I'm hoping the d doesn't return. It nearly killed me waiting for my second infusion now I'm dreading waiting 4 weeks then 2 months! Things better improve by then or I think ill go insane. I noticed your icon is blue ribbon for cd is this true? Everywhere else ive seen it as purple. Is hate to get the wrong color tattooed on me lol! If your interested in chatting sometime send me a mag I'm always interested in hearing about others and talking to ppl who understand! Thanks for ur quick replies. I checked my bp last night and it was back to normal but my pulse was 115 quite high for me. Not sure why I didn't do anything and I was sitting. On my chest bone I have a horrible pain if its touched not sure why that is either! Strange disease this is.

 

[kiny]

Hey, what's a mag? If you get a lot of D they give Enterol, 250mg,I don't take it even though it's safe for Crohn's. Not sure what they use in the U.S. or if they have it there.

Entocort can cause chest pain because it can cause heartburn, drinking lots of water will help usually, but since you're off entocort that can't be it, you can get heartburn from other stuff though. Going to go watch a movie, hope you improve by tomorrow Xox.

 

[xoxava]

Sorry meant msg my stupid phone likes to autocorrect everything!