Posted 3/6/2014 3:52 AM (GMT 0)
I'm a girl and started remicade in October. I'm intolerant to mesalamines (they make my uc worse) and my uc is so severe it was either remicade or humira. I chose remicade because I didn't think I could give myself shots every other week. Because it was really my only option and I was in EXTREME pain, I didn't care much about the risks. The benefit of feeling better weighed more than the slight possibility of getting some serious side effect. I've never had any side effect of it. (Knock on wood) Some people get headaches or joint pain. None of that for me. And the way I see it, I'm being monitored, I see my GI often, and I get regular blood tests. If I developed lymphoma or leukemia, they'd catch it quickly and I'd start treatment and be fine.
Sometimes you have to take side effects with a grain of salt. They have to list a side effect even if only 1 person experienced it. Someone could have an allergic reaction to a med and break out in hives and they'd still have to list it even though it wasn't really the medicine. Even Tylenol has scary side effects including liver failure. Can't always let it scare you if it gets you your life back, which is what remicade did for me. I used to have constant severe cramps where no anti-spasmodic or pain killer helped. When I was finally able to ignore the pain enough to go to sleep for the night I'd wake up 6 times every night to go to the bathroom. I used to get maybe 3 hours total of sleep every night, in 10-20min increments. It was horrible. So for me, remicade was a no brainer.