It was 100 % confirmed with that expensive $455 blood test that it is indeed Ulcerative Colitis and not Crohn's. After all these years. Oh well! I saw the gastroenterologist (Doctor P) as a follow up today. He said to expect to feel weird on this high dose of steroids, and I know what he means. It can sometimes be a little bit like PMS. Great, huh?
Anyway, he wants me started back on Remicade infusions ASAP. It will take a few weeks I am sure, since I have to order the Remicade from a special pharmacy and have it sent to me. At least I get to do the infusions at my rheumatologist's (Doctor K) office, which should be a lot less hassle than the hospital. Plus, I have a feeling he won't have me do all the extra steroids before, which adds at least an extra hours to the treatment. One time it took a total of 6 hours, blah!
The old doctor (Doctor M) also used to make me take Benadryl before leaving home, a double dose... For those of you who don't know what Benadryl is, well, it is an anti-histamine that makes you VERY sleepy. So the entire day I did Remicade treatments were pretty much lost. Hopefully I will be in and out in less than 3 hours this go around.
The old doctor didn't do the dosing correctly; you are suppose to repeat the initial infusion after 2 weeks, so called "loading" of the meds. He never did. He just let it go 8 or more weeks in between the infusions. So maybe that is why it never worked! I pointed it out to him, but he said this is how I do it... Hmmm... Consider the infusions cost way over $2,000 a pop, that was a lot of wasted money...
There is a risk of a severe allergic reaction when you have had a longer break in between treatments, so we will hope that does not happen... With mu luck, you never know...
Oh well! So Doctor K's office will call me with the appointment and then we will take it from there. I just want to feel better. Just. Want. To. Feel. Better.
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