Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Remicade Crohns

Question:
Sorry but I am writing on behalf of my wife who is a long-time Crohn's sufferer and also a bit put-off by computers. Hopefully she will soon go into remission and start realizing the benefits of the pc and internet enough to do this on her own. Anyway, I'd like to give a little background and then get to the question.  Nancy had a colostomy in late May. Prior to that, she had a small bowel resection in late November of '01. So, she's had a full plate lately.  We were hoping that the ostomy would help to turn her fortunes around because she was suffering a lot from her colon problems that flared in the fall of 2000.  The colostomy did bring relief but her recovery has been slow. She's 45, 5'4 and weighs 85 lbs.  Twenty years ago, she weighed 155-120 lbs. She was on TPN therapy for approx 3 months prior to the November '01 resection.  Prior to that, she tried the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for a time but her weight was so low and she was suffering from a stricture that she had to abandon the diet. She also has been on Asacol, prednisone, imuran, etc. with varying success.  She got onto remicade in the fall of 2000 and it has helped greatly.  However, she needs an infusion every 4 weeks.  Near the end of the 4 week cycle, she develops a fever that alternates with chills until the next remicade infusion.  Her last colonoscopy and endoscopy, prior to the May surgery, showed little or no inflammation. Now my question.  She has not had a remicade infusion since April, the had surgery in May. She developed a urinary tract infection a few weeks ago and developed a fever. She's taking Amoxicillan for the infection and it's starting to clear up but the fever remains. It appears the fever is due to inflammation and only remicade will help. She is taking tylenol for the fever. Finally, the question. Has anyone else experienced the fever at the end of their remicade infusion cycle?

Answer:
I have only had the 0, 2, 6 treatment plan. I have another infusion coming soon due to we are still looking for the smoking gun. I was better the 3rd remicade infusion, however I was on mega doses of prednosone also at the same time.  We don't know who done it.  in my 3 infusions, I have never experienced fever, chills, actually, I have never had any reaction either during or after. I know this probably does not help you much, but I felt I had to at least give you my experience. It will be interesting, this 4th infusion here in a couple of weeks, whether or not my luck on reactions changes or not. Ditto to what Jeff said- thank you for being so caring for your wife. I have only had one infusion with success and have not had any bad reactions either. It seems these drugs all work so differently on each of us it's starting to make sense why the doc's can't really give you a direct answer to your questions- they really don't know…and then like with your wife things can change. Did she always get the fever after four weeks and do any other Crohn’s symptoms come back after four weeks? they seem to be saying now- at least on the CCFA website that you should continue the Remicade treatment consistently for if you break the cycle with long periods of time, you are more likely to have a bad reaction and lose the effects. At least that's what Dr. Bayless's (Big IBD guy at J Hopkin's) article implied was his experience. I hope someone here can help…Did you post a question to Dr. May on ask the specialist, on the CCFA .org web site? There’s lot of experienced Remicade folks there. If the fever goes away upon remicade infusion, one would think that the remicade was alleviating the problem rather than causing it, but considering what's going on with your wife, this is something it's important to nail down with her doctors, and if you aren't getting satisfactory answers, a second opinion would be in order.