Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Remicade
Most recents (3)
I'm 1 of 50 million Americans living with an immune system that mistakenly attacks/damages healthy tissue (rude). During #AutoimmuneAwarenessMonth we strive to promote better understanding of these complex chronic conditions. Follow me as I share my journey this month. 
2) It takes an average of 4.5 years and 4 physicians for patients to recieve an autoimmune diagnosis:
-Many conditions mimic others
-Lab tests are not always definitive
-Symptoms flare and dissipate frequently
-Diseases often appear in clusters
#AutoimmuneAwarenessMonth
-Many conditions mimic others
-Lab tests are not always definitive
-Symptoms flare and dissipate frequently
-Diseases often appear in clusters
#AutoimmuneAwarenessMonth
3) This is me at 32, a month before I woke up 1 day + couldn't walk. Days later I couldn't bend my fingers. Bilateral pain/swelling + fam history of #rheumatoidarthritis prompted labs. Sky high CRP, ESR, rheumatoid factor sent me to a #rheumatologist.
#AutoimmuneAwarenessMonth
#AutoimmuneAwarenessMonth
Today marks 20 yrs of #remission from #Crohns. For some #IBD patients, remission feels like an elusive thing. I get it, I’ve had my share of time in the #ICU. I’m extremely fortunate that #Remicade has worked this long. Many people must switch meds to find a lasting solution. 1/n
The last 20 yrs haven’t come w/o complications. A sustained high quality of life was worth the trade offs that come with #biologics. I lived with recurrent infections and a #cancer diagnosis. Was it challenging? Yes. Was it better than living with flares? Absolutely. 2/n
There isn’t a day that I don’t think of those that weren’t as lucky. Alex Davidson, Ty Redler, Lacey Conners and Lindsey D’Ercole were younger than me and have since passed from IBD complications. In spite of some survivor’s guilt, I do my best to keep their memory alive.💜 3/n
The UCP does NOT understand how devastating removing brand name biologics from the list of covered drugs could be. Let me explain..edmonton.citynews.ca/2019/11/18/cro…
Biological drugs are very expensive. They are genetically engineered antibodies that target specific molecules in our bodies that contribute to a disease process (like cancer, inflammation). They do not always just block the molecule from engaging it’s receptor.
Sometimes they have other actions (like inducing apoptosis/cell death) or activating receptors, or signaling other cells to eat the molecule/cell that the antibody binds to. That means that depending on how the antibody was originally designed, the therapeutic effect is different
