• Welcome to Crohn's Forum, a support group for people with all forms of IBD. While this community is not a substitute for doctor's advice and we cannot treat or diagnose, we find being able to communicate with others who have IBD is invaluable as we navigate our struggles and celebrate our successes. We invite you to join us.

Just how supressed does your immune system get?

I took Humira when I didn't have a job and my daughter was sick as well. Needless to say, I didn't venture out into the "real world" much.

I start Cimzia on Friday, work has said I can take Monday off if needed. I work in a public setting. Customers come in sneezing, coughing, etc on a daily basis.

I know people's reactions vary, but how vigilant do I need to be?
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
I think you should be cautious, avoid germs as much as possible, wash your hands, use sanitizer etc. Biologics line humira only partially suppress you and arent as bad as some other drugs. For instance I am on remicade and I'm pretty good against colds now but when I was on 6mp I was constantly sick.
 
I think it can happen, but it doesn't always. I haven't had any real sick issues with humira. I got cut a few times and just used an antibiotic and healed up normally, and colds don't seem to linger.

I just realized this wasn't for Humira. Mods, feel free to delete this with my apologies.
 
I have been on Cimzia since December and (knock on wood) I really haven't had any issues with illness, even with all these things going around at work. I had one short viral sore throat, but that's all. I did break out terribly after finishing my loading doses and found that pimples took far longer to heal than they used to. I am interested to hear other people's experiences with this, since I'm still new to the biologics, too.
 
I had bad side effects from Remicade during administration of the drug but always felt much better afterward. No side effects at all that I can recall during my few years of being on Humira. Now that I am on Cimzia I am noticing all sorts of troublesome side effects. Extreme fatigue and tiredness...tingling hands and feet...pain in upper stomach that spread to my neck and back...trouble breathing (shortness of breath) vision problems, dizziness. I feel like I'm just listing all the possible side effects here but these are all things that started a week or so after my 2nd set of injections.
 
I am on Cimzia right now and have been since June. It is my miracle drug and has made me feel so much better. Since being on it, I have had one infection. I took antibiotics for a week and was fine. I will say when I was on Remicade I got very sick a couple of times, with Shingles then, a kidney infection. It really depends on how you react to the biologics to tell you the truth. You may have no issues or you may end up with a bad infection. I am just so happy to have my life back and not get sick most the time. I hope this works for you as well as it has me and you don't end up with any bad infections.
 
Top