Feel itchy once infusion starts

Hi all,
This morning I had my sixth remicade infusion, everything went well except one thing. Within the first 10 to 15 minutes of it, I started to feel real itchy on my back and arms. Like a dry skin itch. This happened during my last infusion. Good news, the itchy feeling went away as the infusion continued. But, man those first few minutes were annoying! The guy across from me probably thought I was going crazy haha.

Anybody else have a similar situation?

Andreita said...
Do they give you Benadryl or anything?

They've only offered me Tylenol. What is weird is the itchies only happened with my last two infusions. The others were fine.

Maybe it's just psychological?

I used to get an itch in the back of my throat on Remicade. It was weird. It happened 2-3 times over the 2 years I was on it. The only way I could "scratch" it was to swallow. It would last for maybe 20 minutes and then go away. I didn't want to take Benadryl because it makes me kind of loopy.

Flowers Gal, you are correct, a lot drs recommend taking Claritin about 45 minutes before the infusion starts. Hopefully turtlepower comes back & reads the comments on here.