Xeljanez

Starting Xeljanez Friday, looking for any advice on what to expect. How quickly does it work? I have failed Humira(after 5 years symptom free) Simponi, and Entyvio. Thanks in advance.

Current meds are Tacrolimus (stopping this soon) Apriso, and prescription probiotic.

Good luck, UCfireman! I am currently fighting with insurance to get Entyvio approved (I’ve failed remicade as a primary non-responder, but they also want me to fail Humira first, how nice of them :/) - Xeljanz is my next drug of choice. There’s a good Facebook group that’s started for Xeljanz folks called “Xeljanz for UC” - it’s a small group but the folks are nice.

At any rate, I am also on tacrolimus (we had to add it to Remicade a couple of times) and it’s good to see someone else doing the same. Are you doing the suppositories (I’m doing 1mg/day - my tac levels were too high at 2 doses per day) - or oral tacrolimus?

Thanks! Good luck.

I've also failed Remicade and Entyvio.

I've been on Xeljanz for 11 months and I'm now a normal person again.

Last summer I was using the bathroom 30-35x per day, lots of blood, mucus, etc. Not sleeping more than an hour or so at a time. All of this while on 60mg prednisone too. Doctor did a scope and recommended Xeljanz as a last resort before surgery. While they sorted the Xeljanz script out with the insurance I was admitted to the hospital for IV steroids over 5 days. Left the hospital feeling a lot better while I waited for Xeljanz to start.

Started on 10mg 2x per day Labor Day (US) last year. I started noticing improvement after a couple of weeks. Nothing drastic, just slow, steady improvement. Started tapering prednisone with the goal of being off of it before 2018 started. Met that goal with a few days to spare.

I'm now in symptomatic remission (haven't gotten a scope to confirm clinical remission). I go 1-2x in the morning like I did before UC and maybe once again later in the day. No blood, mucus, bloating, gas, cramps or anything else I had before.

For side-effects, the only one I've had was increased cholesterol. I went from a very low 130-ish total to around 200 but it's been stable since.

Xeljanz probably saved my life.

Good luck. I hope Xeljanz does for you what it's done for me.