Remicade: first 4 months

Just a little update. I was in the hospital for about a week in October and a week in November and I was deciding whether or not to go on remicade, asking people that I knew and looking on forums, since it seemed to be the last resort before surgery. I had my first dose while in the hospital and this Monday I had my 4th dose. All I can say is wow, I am off all medications except some vitamins, I only have to use the bathroom once or twice a day, and no blood for months. The only side-effects that I've noticed with the Remicade is some itching and dry skin, but that's all that I've noticed so far. Just my experiences so far and I hope this helps anyone that is thinking about it.

Edit: Everytime I go into the infusion clinic people look at me and ask, "Why are you here, you are too young to be here!" So if you are a young adult, get used to that when you go into the infusion clinic lol

I want to do remicade soo bad, I'm just afraid of the cost. I'm starting to get to the point were I don't care how much it costs and want my life back.
I'm prolly going to ask my doctor today if they can bill me so I don't have to pay it all at once.

NewshinyCD -


Check into the remistart program to help you with the cost. They will reimburse you up to $400 per infusion.

Thanks all :) Newshiny, I hope everything works out for you :) Hey Supa, well I didn't see improvements immediately as it did take a week or 2 to kick in for me and and I've heard as much as a month to kick in from other people. I guess the reason it kicked in so fast for me is because I was on infusion steroids being in the hospital and all. Hope that helps and good luck to you :)

So I talked with my doctor and he said that my insurance will pay for Remicade because I've tried several different medications, unable to take 6MP, and also my body is dependent on prednisone (although I've been able to start to taper lately).
Also they told me even if I would have to pay for it they would definitely allow me to do payments overtime because they don't expect everyone to be able to pay for all at once.
I'm so relieved that I'm going through with it and hopefully the infusion will be sometime soon (I hope next week). Going on 9 months of a constant flareup I'm ready to get this over with lol.

Also quick question about something my doctor said which is the amount of time one is on remicade. He said that there generally isn't a set amount of time to stay on it. He said that generally 1-2 years is good before stopping.

Sorry to hear that Christine, hopefully everything gets better soon. NewShiny, my doctor hasn't really said anything about a set time for stopping, so I guess just play it by ear or in this case by UC heh.