Crohn’s Chronicles :: Stelara

Today I had my loading dose for Stelara. Thankfully, the insurance approved it fairly quickly this time, so I was able to keep on schedule and switch over without any hiccups {huge praise!}

With Stelara, there is an initial weight-based infusion. It took a little more than an hour, and thankfully I didn’t have any reactions. I’m just ready for a nice afternoon nap :) After this, I will do injections at home every 8 weeks. I will do training with the nurses for the initial injections, then will be able to do them myself. 

I’m taking the steroid taper, but 2 weeks in, I haven’t really seen much improvement in my symptoms. But, so far, the side effects have been less severe. I have been experiencing some insomnia, but hopefully that won’t last the remaining 6 weeks. With Prednisone, I would fall asleep, then wake up at 2am and be wide awake for several hours or just up for the day. With Entocort, it just takes forever to fall asleep; my brain won’t shut off even if my eyelids are super heavy with sleep. So I’m awake until 2am but then thankfully can sleep until my alarm. It’s so weird how medications affect our sleep patterns…

Hopefully, the combination of steroids and Stelara will help bring some better days over the next few weeks!