Starting Cimzia, advice and experiences please!

[autoimmune queen]

I am starting on cimzia next week and would really appreciate in info. It was supposed to be humira but insurance said they would only approve the cimzia. Anyway I am a little nervous. I haven't been on a biologic yet.

 

[Kevinsplumbing]

Hello sorry your going through a tough time and insurance company's decides what's best for you its crazy. I tied humira and didn't work for me. I will start my 3 starter dose next week remicade to early to tell. Don't know enough about cimzia to comment on it but here is thread that was asked a few years ago read it and it may help.

Best Kevin

http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=10070

 

[tots]

I have tried Remicade and Humira. Currently on Cimzia, not sure yet if it's working or not. I have read these meds.work best when used with another drug. My Dr wants to hold off on thAt. I on the other hand have decided 4years out of remission is long enough. I work retail long hours, physically demanding I don't have time to be sick!

Good luck and remember you are your best voice don't give up until you get what you need!


Lauren

 

[Orchid]

Cimzia is in the same class of drug as Humira, TNF-a inhibitors. For the average patient the only pertinent difference is Cimzia has two loading doses in a month and then one dose a month after compared to Humira's weekly loading doses and biweekly maintenance doses. It's side effects are similar, more common respiratory infections and injection site reactions.

 

[autoimmune queen]

Thanks for all your help. It will either work or it won't

 

[northwesterner]

Also - for me it took quite a while for Cimzia to kick in ... close to six months. I went back to the doctor for a follow up after three months and there was no notable improvement in my labs or overall condition. Many patients had reported on this discussion forum that it can take quite a while to kick in, so I pushed my GI hard to stick it out. I wasn't going to throw in the towel after three months.

After six months it finally kicked in, but when I mentioned that it wasn't getting me through the whole month (only about three weeks), we switched to one shot, every other week. I now have 18 successful months on Cimzia doing one shot, every other week. I doesn't work as well as Remicade once did, but I am pretty well under control (say one or two bad days every six to eight weeks). I'd be much worse without it.