Remicade issue, just wondering if anyone else has experienced it

I should start by saying that in Nov. I had my 3rrd remicade infusion. about 20-30 mins into the infusion I started getting these pains in the underside of my wrist that traveled slightly up my forearm--they would come and go so I dismissed them as just radiating pain from the iv site. Hiwever, about an hour later the pain had traveled completely up my arm into my arm pit and had me in tears. The nurses stopped the infusion flushed my iv and moved the site to my other arm. Their intentions were to find a larger vein, however I have horribly tiny and scarred veins so they weren't too successful in finding a much larger one. Within about 15 mins of restarting the infusion the pain was back again but I told them I'd suffer through it since I only had 15 more mins to go. At that point they were calling my doc and the hospital pharmacy. The pharmacist said I was having vasospasms which are an extremely rare side effect of remicade. Fast forward to today, I went for my 4th infusion....had tons of pre-meds--solumedrol, pepcid, iv benadryl, plus allegra and tylenol in the hopes that it would stop any reactions. The nurses told me no bucking up that I had to tell them the minute I felt pain, if at all. I tried to remain hopeful, but of course the pain came back...nearly in the same exact place it had happened before. The infusion was stopped, and my doctor was called. He ordered iv lidocain which meant heart monitors and all that fun stuff. Basically it didn't work, the pain kept coming back so he eventually nixed the infusion and said ti call on Friday he needed to see me right away. The nurses told him because of their numerous attempts to stick me and the size of my veins, that I am a perfect candidate for a med port or picc line. Everyone in my family has a medical background and said the port is too risky..infection wise and suggested I do a picc. My problem is that whichever one I get has to remain in until I'm done with the rest of this year's infusions so I'm leaning towards a port since a picc is rather risky and limits what I can do. Has anyone dealt with this, either the reaction or ports/piccs? I'm feeling very alone in this issue

Congratulations on remission, i hope i didn't say that too soon!

It seems, so far, that I'm going through the Remicade issue all for nothing as I haven't noticed much of an improvement so far.   I'm trying to stay hopeful, as with any medicine I know it works differently for all people and I might just take a little longer than someone else for it to work.

As for the port/picc, I will probably go for whatever my doctor suggests and I'm hoping its the port because I'm not thrilled about something hanging from my body and/or having to flush it myself and I believe the port is less complicated in that concern. How is your husband doing by the way? I hope well!!

I'm pretty confident in saying that I'm most likely just going to do the port, it seems way easier.
Then again, I haven't heard what my doctor has had to say yet and who knows he might just end my infusions all together. My appointment is Tuesday, I guess I'll find out then!

     I had a pic line in when hospitalized in May for ten days.  My veins are awful and this helped tremendously.  At first I wouldn't sign the consent for them to put it in.  LOL!  Well, geez, two nurses entered my room with a consent form and when I read it I almost had a stroke!  Scared me to death, but now understand they were covering their behinds.  Then the doctor had to come back in and explained things to me more thoroughly.  When my rectum started to heal they were anxious to get it out though.  It was removed the day I came home from the hospital.  Seems they were reluctant to let me go home with it although that is not unheard of.

piccolobelleezza, I'm sorry Remicade didn't work. What is your treatment plan now?

I'm just not understanding why the first 2 infusions were fine, no problems at all and then all of a sudden it came on. It is my understanding that that can happen with ANY drug, I have just never experienced it. My doc put it this way..its far too serious of a drug, with serious side effects and risk, to push it--especially if it hasn't even started working yet. He thinks I've been through too much in a year and wants me to wait it out until March and get another full colonoscopy.  After that he thinks he'll start me on Humira. Hes actually more of a specialist, a researcher and what not so I don't see him often he works with my regular GI in making decisions about what to do. I'll see my regular GI at some point tomorrow and I'm sure he'll put me back on the prednisone (which I've been off of for about a month) until we figure out whats next! 

Do you think you can try to get approved for Humira?