Remicade

After 3 years of prednisone Dr. Z gave up and said we should try this new medicine - Remicade. It wasn't new to medicine, Rheumatoid Arthritis suffers had been using it for a few years. They had just recently started experimenting with UC patients and it looked promising.

Sure. What did I have to lose?

It worked wonders after just one infusion. Never felt better in my life. Again. Colitis gone.

Sure I had to go to the hospital every 6 weeks or so, get hooked up to an IV, and sit there for 3 hours. But it was worth it. I fell in love with my Remicade.

I even ran a marathon - that is how good I was feeling. And I didn't even have an accident doing it. That is a bigger accomplishment than the race itself.

Then the joint pain started. Lime Disease? Lupus? Nothing made sense to my primary care physician.

I figured it out before he did. During one of my infusions, I started itching. I was having an allergic reaction to my precious Remicade after nine months of glorious living. Problem was - I'm not allergic to anything else so I didn't know I was having an allergic reaction. Suddenly everything was itchy - including my throat. I was having trouble getting air in. I started coughing to try to get some oxygen into me.

Ya I'm an idiot.

Luckily one of the nurses saw what was going on, switched me to saline, injected a bunch of Benadryl into the IV and everything got immediately better. She called Dr. Z. and that was the end of my friendship with Remicade.