Our mission is to improve the quality of life for BIPOC who are affected by IBD, Digestive Disorders and associated Chronic Illnesses; through Community, Research, Education, and Advocacy.

Patient Stories: Angela Jackson #InLivingCOCCI

AngelaJackson

Throughout my 21 years with Crohn’s Disease and numerous medications for treatment, Remicaide (Infliximab) has worked with managing my symptoms the best. The saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, right?

When getting Remicade every 6 weeks the nurses would always ask me to confirm the reason for my appointment, the medication name, and my personal information prior to administering the infusion. There were never any issues, and they’d move forward with the infusion.

On this one occasion, that was not the case. When confirming that I was there for a “Remicade Infusion”, I read the label on the medicine, and it said “Inflectra”. I stopped the nurse stating that it was the wrong medication. Her reply was “this is what your doctor has ordered and further informed me that this was a “biosimilar drug” to Remicade (Infliximab) and further stated that this had been recommended by insurance.

I informed the nurse that I was unaware of the change, and I requested a history of my medication for the past 7 months to a year. I was provided with information noting that I had been given Inflectra several times without me even knowing…when I would confirm that I was there for Remicaide no one ever stopped to correct me or clarify that the medication had been switched because THEY knew it was a biosimilar, but I did not. I contacted my GI’s office and the nurse confirmed that I had not been on Remicade for “a while”.

My question? Why wasn’t I notified? Why was this not a conversation?

As an afterthought, I was asked if I was having any changes and as a matter of fact, it was suggested that I wasn’t having any adverse issues. I explained that I had been experiencing breakouts and that was never the case with Remicade. Also, it seemed that the Inflectra wasn’t working as well.

After speaking up about not knowing about the change and showing documentation that the hospital nurses provided, I was put back on Remicade. The nurse tried to convince me that I needed to change but I fought to stay on Remicade.

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