Welcome to my new mini-series, ‘Let’s Talk About” a place where I’ll be breaking down barriers to commonplace situations within IBD care. I’ve had Crohn’s disease since 2011 and have had a lot of both positive and negative experiences in my care within that time. I want to lessen the emotional burden of having IBD on the newly diagnosed as well as those who are established but experiencing new challenges.…
Vedolizumab
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Coming out of IBD Remission
I’ve had a lot of time – a decade – to think about remission. When my doctors said remission to me back in 2012 – I was less than a year into my official IBD journey – and I honestly thought “great, that’ll make things easier! Welcome back to normal life!” I feel pretty foolish now because nothing about remission then was easy. It was harder than flaring because I…
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Vedolizumab Subcutaneous Injections
Biologics have been around since 2003 and have had a great impact on inducing and maintaining remission in moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). Biologics have been a mixture of intravenous (IV) infusions, subcutaneous (SC) injections and oral medications. What did the pandemic mean for medications? At home administration of biologic Veodlizumab seems to have been spurred on into development and availability due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But…
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“What are infusions like?”
Intravenous simply means ‘into a vein’. Medicines and other fluids can be given directly via a vein into your bloodstream. A fine tube, called a cannula, is inserted into a vein, usually in your arm or hand, using a needle. The cannula is then connected by an IV line (a long, thin tube) to an infusion pump that delivers the medicine or fluid. Infusions are usually given by medical staff…
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Life Lately | What Exactly is Going On?
I always get nervous … because I always wonder if I should or could go without my medication. It is not a matter of fighting for the funding like it has been before, but its more about how my body and disease will cope without medication. It is a catch 22 situation of whether I would be better off without it as it could be deemed unnecessary as I am…
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Never Give Up Hope
Every October and November, I feel nostalgic. I feel the swirl of memories flood my mind, of being taken back to days in the hospital for treatment, of being hooked up to an IV stand. The first time was October 2013, when I moved from Humira to Infliximab. Going from an at-home self-injection to a hospital-based infusion was a big change. And in the beginning, I was very unwell; being…
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Being [Unexpectedly] Medication Free for a Year
I remember vividly two days that began my journey with Vedolizumab; “she returned my call, the long and short of it being that “no, this isn’t working“; agreeing with my doubts since Monday. It’s not a decision to be taken lightly and it certainly wasn’t a happy and cheerful conversation but it was honest and realistic. Having me fail biological treatment like Infliximab was a shock.” INFLIXIMAB #14 – THE…