When To Call The Doctor...

[slightlysilly]

Here's the situation...

I had my last 5mgs of prednisone yesterday... so no prednisone today... for the list of meds I'm currently on.. see below..

Today I feel like my feet are made of cement blocks... I am having trouble staying awake (like falling asleep at the desk trouble)... I "think" I'm sporting a fever (chills, alternately hot, etc... but I don't have a thermometer).. and blazingly bad headache... like... light hurts headache... and my throat kinda hurts but I've had worse.. and of course all of this wouldn't be as fun without some heavy duty regular Crohn's symptoms...

I slepts from lunchtime until 3:35 and then from then until about 5pm and I could keep sleeping... it's too bad there's no sleeping contest because I'm TOTALLY ON!!!

I just missed the doctor by 5 minutes because the last time I got a sinus infection, he gave me guff for not calling him and calling a regular doctor... so I figure that I should call him in the morning... but I was wondering what actually happens when you get some kind of infection while on remicade... do they do something special? Will they make me go back on prednisone? (NOOOOOOO!) What happens?

Thanks in advance all you cool and awesome chronies!!!

 

[dreamintwilight]

Hey Maura - Sorry to hear you aren't feeling well after finishing the Prednisone. There could be the chance that your body is going through some withdrawal. I've heard people on here describe various symptoms that cropped up once they stopped the Crohn's. Sometimes it took a while for the symptoms to disappear.

Though, I do think it is a good idea to give your doc a call tomorrow morning just to make sure. As far as if you get sick while on Remicade...I haven't experienced this problem myself, but depending on what type of infection you have they may just ask you to watch your symptoms carefully and medicate as you would a typical cold. If it's something more serious like a bacterial infection they may put you on an antibiotic to help you fight it off.

Let us know what the doc says! Hang in there.

 

[DanM]

As I have recently learned, you should never feel bad about calling a doctor when you truly feel sick, even if it is after hours. The last time I felt blah back in January was due to mononucleosis and I got an earful from my doctor for not taking it seriously. We are immune suppressed on these drugs and have to take things a little more seriously. As a result, she pulled me off my Humira until it cleared up.

Go buy an accurate oral thermometer. You can get them for around $10 just about anywhere. Its better to have one around to be on the safe side. My rule now is anything over 101 gets reported.

Dan