Serum sickness :(

Hi all,
my labwork came back and one value was lower than normal enough for my doctor to consider serum sickness as the possible reason for my on going and overall worsening joint pain/stiffness and my numerous other complaints. Planning to get my remicade infusion at the end of the month and use that to judge whether to continue remicade or not I need to switch to entyvio. I guess I'm a little sad at this point because I only made it about 5 months before having a problem. Humira was 9 months before I had problems and 6mp is only half a dose because it made me too sick to eat. I hate it because every drug was very successful for the crohns and now I may have to give up another so soon since the joint pain is getting very troublesome.
And experiences with this is greatly appreciated! thanks!

Are you given pre-meds of benadryl and a steroid before your Remicade infusion? I was, and never developed a bad reaction to Remicade in the time I was on it for (a year). Not sure if that was because of the pre-meds, but they couldn't have done any harm.

Yes, I get Benadryl and Tylenol as premeds with the infusion. I'm wondering if I can take Benadryl between infusions to help some of these side effects. That's basically the last time I felt well was the rest of the day after the premeds and infusion and then it's back to feeling crumby. I have had joint problems with many crohns flares but right now the crohns is not active, it's also slightly different because it's in my hand more than usual and makes my fingers very stiff. The joint issues started about a month ago. I believe the latest lab work suggested that I was starting to make antibodies:( I felt better while I was on humira last year but it was a similar issue I had with that towards the end though I don't think I was checked for antibodies.

@sparkleplenty, ugh! I'm glad it went away after you were off of it!
I believe my doctor checked for lupus a few weeks ago but I'm not 100% certain.
I really hope the entyvio works for you!! How many months does it take to know?
It is so frustrating! Every medications with me has helped the crohns but was rejected by my body at some point: cipro, flagyl, Humira, now 6mp I had to drop 6mp to half a dose because it made food repulsive so that is no longer useful for the crohns, and now remicade may be just about to the point of saying good bye:(. I'm at that point were I'm not feeling as bad as when I am in a flare and yet The pains I have take the edge off of my enthusiasm and bring me down. Entyvio would be next but I will have to switch to a different hospital or infusion center because the current one does not deal with entyvio which saddens me because the staff there is so nice and it makes me feel better just being around people I trust and have gotten to know really well over the last few months since I've been around the hospital a lot.

It makes me nervous too and yep, It does suck:( My doctor said there should be less of a chance of the same reaction that I had from humira and remicade with entyvio because it works a bit differently than remicade and humira, so very much hoping that's the case for both of us! I was told there are a lot of really promising meds that should be available in the next few years:/

Hi Keith,
I get benadryl but not usually steroids, I've gotten it with other infusions though. I am on 5mg/kg every 8 weeks. Last time my levels were checked a week before the infusion and it was on the high end of normal so the GI is checking it right before this one to get a more accurate result. That's interesting info, thank you!