Success with Cimzia?

Hello,

For those who have tried Cimzia, did it work for you and how long did you try it? Any significant side effects or problems with infection?  How is the self-injection process?

I tried Humira and Remicade both last year in a row, possibly didn't give them quite enough time (2 months each) but for how awful I was feeling with no result I just wanted something to work.  I stopped Remicade due to fear of the overall effect it was having on me negatively and being in the midst of yet another long-distance move when I was due for the next one.  I've been doing naturopathic treatment this year and holding out a lot longer trying various options with that; still some hope/potential with hormone treatment I am just starting, maybe homeopathy next as well.  I like not trying everything at once though since you don't know what is working (if it works!).

However I'm getting fed up with living like this and my naturopath has me checking in with the gastro here next month (I never met her, just her physician's assistant who was very rude and "can't help you if you don't want meds").  I'm assuming she will suggest medications and I may be willing to give the Cimzia a try (I don't think I can go back on anything I previously tried at this point), but I am worried about doing more damage by suppressing the immune system when I've been trying to work to heal and repair it with the naturopathic effort.  Then again that isn't getting me anywhere great yet, either! 

I had a very bad experience with Cimzia. about 3 hours after my final loading dose (4 weeks in), I got horrible chills and a 102 fever. I ended up being hospitalized for 3 days with this while they looked for the source of infection. No infection was ever found, and after several days the fevers stopped. Still don't know if it was an infection triggered by the Cimzia or a reaction to the Cimzia itself. Either way, I stopped taking it. Each injection was incredibly painful, too, far more painful than Humira.

If Remicade and Humira did not work for you, it is unlikely another anti-TNF such as Cimzia would. And if you were to try another anti-TNF, shouldn't you be looking into Simponi, since that is what is approved for UC? My recommendation would be to look into starting Entyvio, which has a different mechanism of action than the anti-TNF's.

Thanks, I will look into the Entyvio and Simponi and see what the gastro doc says about them too. Have any of you tried those?

Cimzia is in my head only because it's what the gastro I had last year wanted to put me on at first, but the insurance wanted me to try Humira first. This doc thought I might have CD / small intestine action going on after this first encounter with me, but he was also quite awful in many ways so I didn't (or didn't want to) believe I had CD instead...however checking with another doc later he did not think I had CD (although he only reviewed my scope results didn't do a new one) and I've been diagnosed with UC over 10 years.

Part of the stressfulness last year was moving cross country then having the major flare and needing to find a new doc in a vast low-populated area -- not many options so I was stuck with what I got! I feel I'm giving myself more time to try things now with more care options available but I had not heard of those two before.