Week 6&7 with Stelara & fatigue with symptoms

[woops!]

Been on Stelara now for almost a year. I also take imuran with it. Have any of you noticed that around week six you start to have symptoms?
Week six I start getting fatigue. Week seven, it is all I can do to get through an 8 hr work day. I get increased bathroom visits, and abdominal pain.
Once I get my injection on week 8 it takes about 3-5 days for the fatigue to go away and to start feeling better.
Was wondering if anyone else had the same issue?

Whoops!

 

[Scipio]

I'm on week 7 with Stelara right now and have been feeling abdominal pain for the past few days. The next injection comes four days from now.

 

[Maya142]

Stelara can be given more often than every 8 weeks. my little penguin has a kiddo who is on Stelara every 4 weeks.

 

[woops!]

I have an appt with GI in February and will ask him about it. He will most likely be ok with me getting it every 6 weeks or so, the battle will be with insurance....coz they rule the world! I have the discount card, but it only pays up to $20,000 a year. So I still have to pay a good bit out of pocket.
Was just wondering if anyone else started getting symptoms the closer they got to their next dose?
Thanks for the support guys,
Whoops!

 

[aypues]

I've been on Stelara since Sept 2017. We checked a level in December, and I had a zero level. Two weeks ago redid the IV induction dose, and got approval from insurance for 4 week dosing. Haven't had more fatigue than normal. Imuran made me a zombie though, so had to discontinue that one.

Most people should be covered by the 20k assistance card. The 20k is for your copays, not the total cost of the drug. Insurance covers the rest.

My copay for biologics is capped at $250 (a standard copay for most insurances I've seen on the exchanges), which is then paid for by the program. The initial induction dose will be higher - maybe 1k, depends on the insurance adjustment - but should be taken care of by the card. I'll never get close to maxing it out.

 

[newdiagnosis]

I'm trying to get q4 weeks dosing approved. Will definitely be a battle.

 

[my little penguin]

We thought we had approval for every 4 weeks
Nope
Joints are still inflamed on exam so rheumatologist is pushing for every 4 weeks now

 

[newdiagnosis]

Sulfasalazine seems to have worked for me when adding to stelara. However, I have noticed my hemoglobin and white count downtrend while on sulfasalazine. Will see what my doc has to say about that. Stelara is a nice drug. Very minimal side effects.