Humira and lupus

[poopaholic]

I thought I would post my latest crohns stuggles. I had been on humira for about a year and a half . It never put me in remission . But after developing rheumatoid arthritis symptoms , and extensive blood work I have been diagnosed with lupus . Hopefully it is drug induced lupus . The only way to know is to stop the humira and hope the lupus and it's symptoms go away . Anyway my next step in trying to achieve remission is taking methotrexate . I am getting weekly injections . I hope this works , but I have my doubts . I have been on Imuran , it gave me pancreatitis . I was on cimza for a year with no benefits . Then the humira , and now the methotrexate .I just thought I would put this out there incase someone else is experiencing similar symptoms .

 

[poopaholic]

I thought I would describe my symptoms in more detail prior to the lupus diagnoses . I was taking the humira, two shots every four weeks with no signs of improvement for a year . Then it was changed to one shot every two weeks . Directly after that is when the first symptom occurred . When checking my blood platelets it came back that I didn't have any . Well come to find out that my blood now clumps in the vial . After retaking the test with an anticlumping vial , platelets were actually in a normal range . My doctor said this has no clinical significance . To me it is a change . I never needed an anticlumping vial before . Then the arthritis symptoms began . One elbow would swell up , it would be red and you could feel a temperature in it . It would last maybe three to four days . During this time another part of my body would do the same . Sometimes it would be a finger or a single toe . I had never had this happen before . Previously I had aching joints but nothing like this . When this happens I can pinpoint the pain . My next symptom was tingling in the fingers , toes , and face . That was due to very low magnesium levels . This was taking care of while I was addmitted in the hospital . So now I am home again on new medicines in hope that the lupus will go away since I am no longer on the humira . But it is possible that it is just another problem that has occurred since my autoimmune system is already compromised with the crohns . I guess time will tell .

 

[PsychoJane]

I had the same happen to me on Humira. The statistic regarding the DIL are supposedly very low... but I am at the point where I wonder if my case, if your case and if many other cases do get reported and compiled somewhere...
The statistic regarding changes within certain blood parameter are way more frequent and they don't allow the diagnosis, many people remain symptoms-free (I'm talking about additional symptoms affecting joint, skin, etc) for a while.
Anyway, best of luck with all this, I hope you are as lucky as I and that all your manifestations fade away. I was lucky enough that mine did and fairly quickly too.

 

[poopaholic]

Thank you for reply . It is nice to hear that your lupus symptoms have gone once stopping the humira . Hopefully mine will also . I am just apprehensive to what the methotrexate may bring. remission would be nice , but at this point I would settle for no extra problems .