Reaction to Remicade
Hello all. I had my first infusion of Remicade today and had a reaction within the 1st 30 minutes. My question is has anyone else had this happen and how was it treated? I had a big dose of steroids and Benedryl IV, and they kept me for a bit. Napped several hours and work up feeling itchy, nauseous, had a headache and tingly lips again. Took Benedryl. Called doc, sent me to ER. There I had an EKG that was fine, more steroids and told to take Benadryl every 4 hours thru the night and steroids starting tomorrow. I am concerned about how long this may last. Some other reactions in the past include Shellfish and contrast IVP dye. It took me forever to recover as it triggered severe inflammatory arthritis. This was before I was diagnosed with serum neg RA. Thank you.
Hi
. I'm glad you have been proactive in treating this reaction. If your reactions to shellfish are anything like mine you know how dangerous allergic reactions can be. I have not found anything to indicate that those with the the allergies you mentioned are more susceptible to Remicade reactions, but that certainly does not mean this isn't the case (I do wonder if there could be crossover between the preservatives use in the contrast dye and the infusion dosage).
I definitely have heard of others with pretty severe reactions. I hope others will chime in with their experiences on how long it took for the reaction to clear and impact on the RA. The literature indicates severe reactions are rare and mostly attributed to the very high dosage in the infusions (I know - none of that is terribly helpful when you have had a reaction). Some who have had the reactions have noted that the initial infusion was the worst (although that has not been my experience with allergic reactions in general).
Make sure to discuss with your doctor next steps and if an alternative treatment or protocol is necessary and don't agree to anything you do not feel comfortable or safe with. Please feel free to keep us posted on how you are doing. Best, Richard (RheumatoidArthritis.net Team)Thank you for your reply. I too have wondered about preservatives. I know some people are pretreated prior to getting their Remicade infusion but I am not feeling open to that suggestion at the moment!
