My husband has decided to start remicade for his colitis because so far every other treatment has
failed to get him any relief. His Dr. agreed with us that getting a shingles vaccine was a good idea
to have before starting treatment(just turned 60) We have found out that the vaccine is on backorder
for 6-8 wks and that Merick (co that produces vaccine) has stated to wait 30 days before starting
treatment since vaccine is a live vaccine. Dr indicated more like 60-90 days to be safe.
So we are in a dilema, should he start without and hope for the best or wait on vaccine and eliminate
possibility of shingles to add to stress of dealing with this uncontrollable colitis.
My husband also has degenerative disease of the spine and has to also deal with alot of pain from this also.
If we wait, we will have to go on some type of treatment such as prednisone enemas
which he has been on before, recently he came off large dosages of oral prednisone which
left him with myopathy which took him several months to recover from.
His treatment now is just the 12 pills of asacol daily and cortifoam. He is totally housebound, to get
him to the drs office he has to take alot of immodium and suffer next day. His bathroom excursions
average 13-20 times daily. Any suggestions would really be appreciated.
