Cimzia, anyone try it?

I was on Cimzia for 3 years. I feel like it worked for most of that time, but I did get new active disease while taking it, however, I did have to stop treatment for 3 months while recovering from an infection and surgery. I stopped completely 6 months ago.

I also have migraines, and have for 20 years. The Cimzia did not contribute to them for me. The only side effects I got were the infections. I was also born with a heart defect, so the infections were life threatening for me, but that's a special case.

Post Edited (jdiane) : 11/23/2013 9:57:13 AM (GMT-7)

I am on it now - so far so good. The only thing I hate is that it is a syringe and not a pen - so you actually have to push the medicine in slowly. I've been having my husband do it because it stings and I have trouble hurting myself like that.

I understand the feeling :-/

You shouldn't have a problem with the syringes. Just grab a piece of flesh, stick the needle in as perpendicularly (right angle to the skin) as you can, and don't inject the contents all at once; do it over the space of about a minute. Found it far less painful than the pens, tbh.

Cimzia, let it warm up for 30 minutes. Much easier to deal with reduces the stinging greatly. it just didn't do it for me. I opted for surgery. 6 months and a day, life is better.

T

I was on Cimzia for 2 1/2 years. My Dr. starting finding microscopic evidence of increased disease activity recently, even though my symptoms were (mostly) controlled. I was starting to have pain (my main issue) for a few days before/after my shots and so for both reasons we decided to switch me to Humira since she thought Cimzia was losing effect. It was great for me while I was on it, although it did seem to fade a bit over time. I've now been on Humira for 4 weeks and I feel waaay worse than I did on Cimzia. Far more days of pain than before. I'm chalking it up to the med switch and hoping for the best, trying to let it kick in. As far as the shots, I actually think I preferred the syringes to the pen. It took awhile to get used to it, but I prefer the control of doing the injection myself, at a slow pace. It's a little weird to stick yourself with a needle, but you get over it eventually. I have a hard time doing the Humira pen in my thigh at all because at the 90 degree angle they prescribe, I feel like there isn't enough fat to inject into and I hit muscle, which is extraordinarilry painful and the pen doesn't feel like it goes in all the way. So I do most in my stomach at this point. The Cimzia always hurt a bit more in the thigh, but I could inject reliably. The pharmacy told me I can get Humira syringes if I want so I plan to switch back to those rather than the pen. I'm keeping quiet at this point about the symptoms to give Humira a chance, but I'm a little worried it wasn't' the right move...

Jen, I'd still give it a try if I were you. Just make sure your GI knows you are concerned about migraines and if you notice any increase you are going to want to discuss what's going on, and possibly stop. For me I was afraid of joint pain on it, and I didn't experience it until I'd been on it for a few months. We tried a few things to mitigate it, but in the end I had to stop.

Good luck. I hope it works for you, and doesn't give you any side effects!!

Sparkleplenty, I will for sure be giving it a try. I would like to talk to my doctor first though and go over all my concerns and get my questions answered. Unfortunately I don't see him until December 19th. Hopefully it will take some time to get it approved and that they won't mind me waiting to see him. I just know I'll feel more comfortable about doing it after talking with him first. That's not asking too much you think?

QE, I'm actually not as afraid of the cutting part as I am having a NG tube. I don't know why but the thought of having a tube hanging in my throat scares me a great deal!