Hello peps!
Here is my latest health update! Unfortunately I am still in the hospital. I've been here for 11 days now. Who counting? Yesterday we did another Remicade treatment. I had received 2 Remicade treatments before I was hospitalized in February with pneumonia. We momentarily stopped the Remicade treatments because this drug suppresses your immune system and my doctors felt that it needed to be done, so that I could recover from the pneumonia. Once I got better from the pneumonia, I broke out with these huge painful blisters on my hands. Which turned out to be herpes (the coldsore kind, not the STD) I am pretty sure I got it just from being in the hospital, grrr! So again, Remicade treatment was put on hold so my immune system could battle the herpes. Which made me very nervous at the time because I had experienced some releif from my UC, and we credited this to the Remicade treatments.
For those of who you aren't familiar with Remicade, the drug can take up to 3 treatments to work (when you are in the middle of a horrible flare this can seam like an eternity). You do what is called an induction round to get started. This consists of one treatment, then 2 weeks later another one, then 4 weeks later another one, then 6 weeks later, then they eventually go to every 8 weeks. The drug is administered through an IV and takes about 2 hours to infuse. I originally put off doing this drug because off all the horrible side affects listed, plus we knew that we wanted to start a family and my OBGYN didn't think that this would be a good drug to be on during pregnancy. However after being in a flare for 9 months we got to the point that were willing to try anything. Not that this is sound reasoning but all medications have risks and side affects even Tylenol says that it can cause cancer or death, if you read through all the fine print. Anyways here is the link for more information about Remicade www.remicade.com (I always encourage everyone to do their own research for making any decisions.)
Back to the story. Shortly after getting over the herpes break out, I flared back up. So we did another Remicade treatment that was about a month ago. However it takes up to 3 for it to work, and since I had stopped treatment before getting the full induction round, we weren't really sure if the Remicade ever worked in the first place or if it ever had enough time to fully build up in my system. Recently, I haven't been responding to medications, so they sent me to the ER and I have been living at the hospital ever since. Yesterday my doctors decided to start the Remicade induction process all over again, and I received another treatment. This is basically a last effort to save my colon. If this doesn't work I'll go to surgery. So we are hoping for the best.
My doctors don't seam to know an exact day that I will be released yet. I am being closely monitored, and I believe I am getting the best care possible. However I am starting to get home sick, and not knowing when I'll be released is starting to wear on me. I own a dance studio, and this time of year is crazy busy for us. We have a dance competition next weekend, and a recital right around the corner. My husband, family, and staff have been super wonderful to me during this difficult time. They are pretty much running the studio at this point. My clients have been really supportive, however I have this fear of losing the business to this horrible disease because I honestly am unable to work. Bottom line, I need to get better!
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