Enbrel stopped working for me after only about a year. I see my rheumy today to discuss a new med. Humira didn't work for me - that was the first med I tried.
thanks for your comments !
I had a similar experience with Humira. It was an improvement that lasted less than a year before I got sausage toes and new neck pain. I have been on Cimzia for a year and a half and still feeling better than I ever felt on Humira. The loading doses for Cimzia are essentially double shots for the first three rounds, I noticed feeling better after one week. I hope it works for you, my experience has been great, especially the reduction in fatigue.
That's great news ! I suffer from severe fatigue and take narcolepsy medicine for it - Nuvigil. Maybe, the Cimzia will help with my fatigue also. Things always work out for the best and when my med stopped working, I thought, well I bet I'll probably feel even better than before with a new med - I'm thinking positively that will be the case with Cimzia.
Thanks for responding Mel.
Mel,
After taking my first loading dose of Cimzia on Saturday I was in the ER with horrible side effects: painfully nauseated, complete weakness. It felt like I had 2 doses of chemo - never had it but can only imagine. It's Tuesday and I'm still home in bed recovering. My rheumy said I'll have to try something else.
Did you have any side effects? I took 400 ml syringe and I have this problem before with other meds and had to take very low dose and work up to the therapeutic dose. You said Cimzia is really helping you and my rheumy said it's a fairly mild med, so I'm thinking I should try with a smaller dose and work up.
Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated !
Hi Frances, so sorry to hear that you had such a bad reaction! That sounds awful. I'm not very sensitive to medication I guess. I take the max dose of MTX and have no issues, so I was mildly tired from the loading dose of Cimzia but I've never had any bad reactions like that. I think I'm like a horse when it comes to medication, my rheumy said I tolerate things well. I know that you can get Cimzia constituted and injected by the doctor, maybe they could give you smaller doses? I know the "loading" dose with Cimzia is essentially a double dose.
What does "constituted" mean? What is a constituted Cimzia dose? Thanks so much ! this gives me an option to discuss with my rheumy.
Mel B said:
Hi Frances, so sorry to hear that you had such a bad reaction! That sounds awful. I'm not very sensitive to medication I guess. I take the max dose of MTX and have no issues, so I was mildly tired from the loading dose of Cimzia but I've never had any bad reactions like that. I think I'm like a horse when it comes to medication, my rheumy said I tolerate things well. I know that you can get Cimzia constituted and injected by the doctor, maybe they could give you smaller doses? I know the "loading" dose with Cimzia is essentially a double dose.
The prefilled syringes are 200mg, at first you take two for a total of 400mg. Now I only take one shot (200mg) every two weeks. A friend of mine has RA and she takes Cimzia but medicare will only pay for it if she gets it at the doctor and that version is a powder that they mix with liquid and they give her the shot. The difference is she gets all 400mg at once every month where mine is spread out (and taken at home.) Not sure if the doctor can take that powder and make you a special dose?
I think she means reconstituted as in mixing sterile water with a powdered med and injecting it. I also assume you mean 400 mg of cimzia. Ml is mili liters a measure of fluid. Mg or milligram is the strength of med. With mtx I take .7 ml or 17.5 mg.
welcome back Francis, I have missed you.
Yes I meant mg. Thanks for responding Michael !!
michael in vermont said:
I think she means reconstituted as in mixing sterile water with a powdered med and injecting it. I also assume you mean 400 mg of cimzia. Ml is mili liters a measure of fluid. Mg or milligram is the strength of med. With mtx I take .7 ml or 17.5 mg.
welcome back Francis, I have missed you.
Thanks for responding everyone ! This is an option I didn't know existed and may be my solution to getting my body use to this med. I'm also going to call Cimzia to see if they have 100mg pre-filled syringes, but doubt it.