UPDATE 8(September 20, 2001)

Bad Reaction to Remicade!

Well After I had my Remicade I began to feel sick. I left off on the last update on August 29th. The next morning I woke up with swollen lips, and the starting of a rash on my body. My mom called my PCP and talked to the nurse at his office. The nurse wanted me to come in and see the doctor at 1pm. At this time it was only about 9am. While my mom was on the phone I started having trouble breathing. My mom told the nurse, and the nurse told my mom to take me to the ER. At the ER they gave me a Allergy shot. The rash got better in about 30 minutes and I was sent home. I went to my uncles house and fell asleep on my uncles couch. When I woke up some hours later I felt instantly Ill. I ran to the bathroom and had diarrhea and throwing up at the same time. I was also running a temperature. My mom called the Hospital in Pittsburgh, where my GI doctors are, and talked to a GI doctor who told my mom to bring me to the ER. The hour long drive to the hospital seemed like a week. While I was waiting to be taken to a room to be seen by the ER doctor, I threw up 4 more times. When I finally got taken to a room my condition had worsened. I started getting full body hives everywhere. My blood pressure was low, and my entire body hurt to move. If anyone just barely touched me I would yell in pain.

My blood work reflected low Serum levels, an indicator of an allergic reaction to Remicade a few days later, But the doctors didn't know it at the time. I had blood cultures taken, admitted to the hospital and started on 3 different anti biotics that night. The doctors were concerened about sepsis, or menengitis. The following morning I still had full body hives. The Residents came to see me. They thought maybe I was having a reaction to the anti biotics or pain meds, so they changed all of them. I had a CT scan Done, and when I got back to my room the Residents were going to do a spinal tap on me because I had so much neck pain I could barely lift my head. But upon getting the results of the CT scan the spinal tap was no longer needed. The CT scan showed a fluid filled Cyst, which they thought at first was an abscess, but the cyst was confirmed with ultrasound later that day. The cyst turned out to be between 5-7cm big, and blood filled. For the next 3 days I got good enough to go home. But between September 4th and September 25th I was admitted 4 different times because my lipase was elevated. One time it was 2900, but by the next morning it was 2100. Still not normal, but better than 2900.

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