Hi everyone! So I'm on remicade (helping for 10 years!) and I work in a hospital and where I was just exposed to TB. The patient (who had lung cancer and pneumonia, so no one was suspicious over a cough and fever) was coughing over me frequently while I cared for him over 2 days. Almost half of my unit was exposed and sent for quantiferon gold blood work for baseline readings, then we will get rechecked in 12 weeks to see if we have antibodies (which means latent or active TB).
From everything I was reading, I was expecting to have to hold the infusions until that follow up testing is done, since they do the PPD or blood work and make you wait for the results when starting remicade in the first place. I was surprised when the GI doc said he wanted a chest x-ray, but I could get my next infusion as planned in 7 weeks. I'm a little wary about that. I figure I'm at higher risk for getting TB than most ppl since I'm on remicade, and was directly coughed on frequently. As much as I don't want to delay remicade and risk a flare or developing antibodies, it seems odd to continue taking it when I don't know if I have TB.
Does any one else have experience with this? Wondering if I should get a second opinion from another GI practice.
From everything I was reading, I was expecting to have to hold the infusions until that follow up testing is done, since they do the PPD or blood work and make you wait for the results when starting remicade in the first place. I was surprised when the GI doc said he wanted a chest x-ray, but I could get my next infusion as planned in 7 weeks. I'm a little wary about that. I figure I'm at higher risk for getting TB than most ppl since I'm on remicade, and was directly coughed on frequently. As much as I don't want to delay remicade and risk a flare or developing antibodies, it seems odd to continue taking it when I don't know if I have TB.
Does any one else have experience with this? Wondering if I should get a second opinion from another GI practice.