Humira, side effects, and meds to counter those?

[Owensmom]

My son recently started Humira and had his first 2 loading doses. 3 days after the first (4 shots) he had fatigue, headache, stomach pain and loss of appetite that was intense and lasted for about 12 hours. After the 2nd dose (2 shots), within one day, he had the same but not as severe. His blood work right now came back well. (happy dance)

His next dose (1 shot) is on Monday. The GI doc said that if he has a 'reaction' again that the next time they will have him take Tylenol and Benedryl prior to taking the med. I'm not sure how either of those would help if the reaction hasn't been immediate. My hope is that my son's body stops having the reaction on the lower dose. Has anyone else had this experience? I had posted after his first dose and heard of others who have had issues initially, but then it seemed to improve. Does anyone else take anything prior to their shots?

We are also tapering off Entocort at the same time. I really feel like we are walking a tight rope here, while balancing health, diet, and life in general (food allergies, ADHD, just being a kid) and then the balls are thrown at us and the rope gets higher. Oh to be on the ground again...

 

[Brian'sMom]

We never had a reaction to Humira except a redness around the injection site. Its so hard to know if fatigue, headache, loss of appetite and stomach pain are a reaction to the medicine or if its a crohns thing. My son may have had that...but didn't know to report it because he had been feeling really bad prior to starting the Humira. He also has dealt with this since he was 5 1/2... so its all he can remember I'm sure. First time he felt 'good' was his first year and 1/2 on Humira. But what is "his" good, really?! Compared to if he didn't have crohns at all.......