Started Humira Yesterday

[NJZen]

I took my starting dose of Humira yesterday at about noon, 4 fun pen injections. Since then I've gone to the bathroom once, and it was semi-solid, as opposed to the 8-9 episodes of urgent diarrhea and cramping through the course of the day. On times when I haven't gone for large periods of time, I've been so uncomfortable and lethargic, it was actually worse than going frequently. Not so this time, I felt more normal than usual. Judging by the responses of most, this is clearly not typical to feel immediate results. I imagine this is more of a placebo effect in my mind, or the fact that I'm not in the middle of a serious flare at the moment, although my recent cat scan and scope definitely showed the disease was active and some fairly serious inflammation.

Also, I had an egg sandwich this AM which usually sends me scrambling to the bathroom, nothing.

Trying not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but after all these years, it is tough not to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. Anyone else have that kind of experience?

 

[ronroush7]

I hope continued good things for you.

 

[Layla]

Yep, I also had an almost immediate response to Humira, it was wonderful, I could even eat salads! Sadly it lasted about a month and then wore off to the point of needing weekly shots and still having inflammation. Turns out I was metabolising it far too quickly (and probably was developing antbodies) so I switched to Remicade.

In hindsight it may have helped to take Methotrexate with it so my advice to you would be to keep an eye on it and if you notice a change for the worse to not ignore it but discuss with your specialist if taking Aza or MTX along with it may be a sensible option.

Some specialists recommend taking Aza or MTX for the first 6 months or so anyway to avoid building up antibodies so you might want to bring that up during your next visit.

 

[NJZen]

Thanks Layla,

That may be the case for me as well, every med I have tried has done an amazing job for the first few weeks to months, even steroids, however I will keep my hopes up. Remicade is next up for me too if this doesn't work or the side effects are too much. I will bring up the other 2 you suggested on my follow up visit this month.

Thanks for the response and hope your are doing well!