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For the people that have been on Remicade longer than a year

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 11/1/2013 2:14 AM (GMT 0)
Do you find that your veins are harder to access after a while? I had my Remi last Tuesday and even though my veins were "ready" they had a hard time threading the IV in because it was like my veins clamped down. I've never had a problem with IV's before but this last time they had 3 different ladies from the IV team and a nurse try. I ended up getting stuck 6 different times. I have bruises all over my arms! Eventually they got me in the hand (which I HATE!) but she had to use 2 tournaquits.
Posted 11/1/2013 2:17 AM (GMT 0)
I always have my infusion in my hand. I seem to have one good vein on my right arm for blood draws, and one in my left hand for IVs. I'm always difficult to stick so I don't think Remicade has changed that.
Posted 11/1/2013 2:58 AM (GMT 0)
I have been on Remicade for 21 months now, and only once have had that problem. It was about 3-4 infusions ago. From what I could learn it was much more about me being dehydrated than anything else. If a person is dehydrated the veins are a lot harder to hit and thread I guess.

Hope that helps! :)
Posted 11/1/2013 3:06 AM (GMT 0)
I've never had a problem at my infusion center. When I had to go to the hospital infusion center for a while, they always had trouble and used to go get a tech from pre-op. A lot depends on the skill of the person doing the stick.
Posted 11/1/2013 4:23 AM (GMT 0)
I don't take remicade but when I was getting weekly (or more) blood checks for 6mp, I had scarring on my veins and I was having trouble getting blood drawn. Do you think they are scarred? I had a few instances where they would go to prick the vein and no blood would come out or where it was being drawn and it would just stop drawing causing me to have to begin another draw.
Posted 11/1/2013 5:11 AM (GMT 0)
Took Remicade for almost 5 years, never any problems getting stuck but towards the last year or so I would occasionally bleed after they removed the IV.... I'd be walking out the door of the infusion center and my IV site would start bleeding.
Posted 11/1/2013 12:39 PM (GMT 0)
I don't think I was dehydrated. I drank a ton of water the day before and the morning of. But just in case I was, I drank even more water after the 2nd failed attempt. I've had these ladies before and I've never had an issue with them.

Could be scarring I suppose.
Posted 11/2/2013 5:44 PM (GMT 0)
I get my infusions in my hand. I know it can give you the eeby-jeebys, but it actually seems easiest. The regular infusion people at my docs office are really good and never left even the slightest mark. But when I had to have a couple of infusions at the hospital they were not as good, and took an extra try sometimes.
I think a vein can collapse when they are messing with it, and they have to move to another spot, but I would think that is just temporary. Sounds like they made a mess of things that day!
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