My first infusion was done in a small room with only two infusion chairs. Last week, was my second infusion of Simponi Aria and it was in the “main” infusion center. From what I could tell, most of the patients were fighting cancer.
I thought to myself, “they are fighting a much harder battle than me, I’m just here for Rheumatoid Arthritis”. And then it hit me. Everyone’s battle, including mine, is important. Just because I’m injecting my small dose of chemotherapy at home and getting a biologic infusion, doesn’t mean that the infusion process is any less scary or intimidating for me. My disease will never be in remission. I have permanent damage to my joints and bones as a result of Rheumatoid Arthritis and no amount of chemotherapy is going to fix that. I could very likely be sitting in that infusion chair, every 8 weeks, for the rest of my life.
So I’m going to try to keep things in perspective. When I see someone cry or flinch while getting a flu shot, I’m going to try to remember that just because I have given myself shots for 28 years, not everyone else has.