Humira/remicade and second immunosuppressant

[littlemissh]

Saw my IBD nurse today as starting humira on thursday. I asked about stopping my azathioprine and after asking my consultant said he wants me to be on both. I am still on pred as well though guess that will be tapered fairly soon. I know my symptoms aren't exactly under control at the moment but really thought aza would be stopped.

I knew that for remicade some people stay on a second immunosupp as it reduces you getting antibodies against remicade with it being mousey in origin, but didn't think I would need to stay on both because I was going on humira.

I wondered how many of you on biologics stayed on both and the reason given.


ps there are a lot of s's, m's and p's in immunosuppressants aren't there!!

 

[Grumbletum]

Lol, yes there are! It's like abscesses - I always think I've put an extra something in there. They kept me on the Aza and gave me the reasons you mention above.
Are you worried about being on both?

 

[rygon]

I was kept on aza as Remicade is a foreign body so aza will hopefully stop my immune system from attacking it

 

[chrisnsteph1022]

I was kept on aza when I started Remi, even though it wasn't working with the Cimzia. I'm hoping to come off of it over time, though.

 

[lookame]

I'm currently on 4 pills of lialda, 50 mgs of 6mp and remicade infusions every 2 months.

Soon he hopes to wean me off the lialda since it's doing crap for me and has never really worked but he wants to keep me on the 6mp. He said if I were a male he would take me off the 6mp as well since males doing 6mp and remicade seem to have a higher chance of developing a rare cancer.

 

[littlemissh]

Thanks for your replies. It seems common to be on both for remicade but not much response from those on humira yet.

 

[HeatherMN]

I was on imuran and humira together when I first started Humira. I got infection after infection (UTI, strep, pneumonia, etc), so they decided to stop the imuran to keep me from getting too suppressed.
I have been on Humira alone for several years now and it works pretty well for me.

 

[outlier]

For a while I was on MTX and humira. which helps prevent antibodies. I stopped because i couldn't handle the side effects of MTX.