Starting Humira Soon!

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Jennifer

Jennifer

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Will be taking it soon along with the 6MP and if I do well on it then I may be able to come off of the 6MP.

Just saw my Rheumatoid specialist today (so far I don't have RA, waiting to have another blood test to confirm) and he feels that its about time someone went over my GI's head and gave me meds that will actually help keep me in remission.

He said that I shouldn't be tired all the time, getting up to urinate throughout the night, have diarrhea, have heart burn and acid reflux, have so much abdominal and joint pain and have mucus in my stool if my disease were under control. So he's putting me on Humira in hopes it will actually force me back into full remission rather than the "clinical" remission my GI has kept me in for a couple years now.

He says it may anger my GI but he doesn't care. I'll still be seeing my regular GI and will be doing the capsule endoscopy this Tuesday to see what's going on inside but so far I feel like my Rheumy knows a lot more than my GI.

I learned how to use the pen in the office today. Seems pretty straight forward. I'll be looking over all the information I can about this new med (never taken it before).

Feel free to share any info about side effects you've had or if it worked for you/didn't or how long it took to work/realize it didn't or anything else I should know. I imagine it doesn't hurt much right? I've given shots to people but never to myself. :p
 
I love Humira, aside from helping my Crohns so much my joint problems are under control now. There will be random side effects here and there, after awhile the injections get old and start to hurt, I recommend starting in your stomach and do that until you cant anymore then just inject in your legs. The days leading up to injection day get kind of rough as the half life wears off but injection day is a joyous occasion in my household as everyone knows how much relief it gives me instantly. Welcome to the club and hopefully it helps you as much as it has helped me!
 
Awwwyeahhh Crabby! Humira is nice and easy. Noone ever showed me how to do it, it was that simple. I just watched the dvd. I wouldn't say it really hurts at all. I read other peoples posts tho and they say its bad and they are terrified of them. I think it's all in you pain threshold. For me, it's just a little sting that really is nothing at all.

As for side-effect, I just finished my starting doses and my first maintenance dose and no side-effects yet. Major ones I should say. I have been getting a bit itchy for some reason and I read that it's a small side-effect but nothing lotion doesn't fix.

I hope it goes well for you!
 
Waiting on insurance approval. Dunno how long that will take.

I'm curious how I'll feel in between injections since my symptoms seem pretty minor for me. Just seemed like my GI was waiting for me to start bleeding to consider me bad enough to start Humira. I don't want to get that bad ever again. D:
 
My doctors had told me I had the worst case of Crohn's some of them had ever seen. Now that I'm on humira, along with taking mineral oil before some of my meals, fiber tablets and probiotics I have been feeling very good! Still have some minor pains here and there on occasion, but humira has worked way better than any other medication I had previously taken. Yes, it hurts injecting the medication. I turn on the tv to help me relax, then poke and inject. It is scary and it does hurt, but it goes by fast. You will get used to it, and if you get to the point when you are scared to inject just think about how good you will feel once it starts to help with your crohn's. That usually helps me :)
 
I felt better a couple of days after my loading doses. A little swelling and rash at injection site but after eighth shot all was well. First 1 1/2 years were awesome, some issues now but not sure if it's the Humira or I'm just falling apart. About the only thing it didn't address for me was the fatigue, everything else is good. Figuring out if you want to use the pen or syringe will be the hard part. Pen, quick and easy but stings(ice spot before hand, leave out for 15 minutes to warm, let alcohol dry before injecting, if you itch or swell take an antihisimine) the syringe gives more control, you can go slower but you have to be able to handle seeing the needle. All in all it has been a positive experience for me. I hope it is for you too!
 
About 3 days before my next injection I start to feel it in my joints and bones more than my stomach. It's nothing that's major you can just tell that its getting closer to injection time. For most people their body really takes to Humira and it starts to crave it because of how it makes you feel, I think that might be a little bit of it too.
 
My daughter and I have both taken it, and I think that it is a painful shot (not the needle, which is tiny, but the med itself burns a lot most times). I prefer my belly, she preferred her leg...I think everyone is different. We use the prefilled syringe so we can control the injection rate...if you inject more slowly it hurts less. I leave it out for 20 minutes before injecting and ice the area for 10 minutes first. Good luck and hope Humira works wonders for you!!
 
I've been on humira for 6 months and am doing great on it. As a few others mentioned, it does slightly wear off a day or 2 before hand, but no major flare-up of symptoms. The shot is really easy and pretty self explanatory. The medicine itself burns like crazy, but only for a few seconds. It is so nice and convenient that the shots can be self-administered & delivered right to your front door. Before Humira I was on Remicade which required me to drive 30-40 minutes to my doctors office every 7 weeks for 3-4 hours... which I had to plan my entire schedule around (work, school, etc).

The only bad side effect for me is nausea, fatigue, & just not feeling well for a few hours after the shot. However I now do my shots at night so it's not a big deal.
 
So it doesn't matter what time of the day you do it? I take all my meds at night. When I first start the drug though I'm told some sort of twice a day business so I hope I remember the early doses.
 
Yep, you can do it anytime of day you would like. The start-up doses they load you up with 4 and then 2 I believe... I did all of mine at once when I was starting up, but maybe they are thinking it will be easier on you to separate them. It would be worth asking about if you'd prefer to do the start up doses all at once.
 
Got a call today from a pharmacy far away (honestly I thought it was some sort of scam at first) and am told that my first batch of Humira will be sent to my home tomorrow. No copay (Medi-Cal is free and thankfully this time things were easy).

Does this sound like a normal loading dose to you all?

Day 1 and 2 inject twice a day.
Day 15 inject twice.
1 injection every 2 weeks after day 15.

I thought the loading doses were worse than that (like a lot more of them).
 
They like to try and force you to take all 4 at once, however it is possible and doesn't really make a difference if you split it up over two days. I was so freaked out when first starting it that I refused to take the 4 at once, I yelled at the nurse to go force the doctor to let me split it up lol (I apologized after) but it is possible to split them and I recommend it as the injections kind of suck and 4 at one time is a bit much. I tip my hat to all of you who toughed out the 4 at one time!
 
Humira came today! :D

I'm waiting for my fiance to get home (he'll be home around midnight which is around my bedtime anyway) before I start injecting myself just in case I have some sort of extremely rare and unfortunate allergic reaction. Moral support is always nice too. :p
 
Just finished my first two injections. Tried stomach first. It hurt like a sting that got gradually worse but not too bad. Tried my thigh second, my God, I don't think I'll do it there again unless my stomach is bruised to all hell! That hurt so bad. Wanted to pull the pen away but kept it there. Brought tears to my eyes with the stinging getting worse and worse. My fiance said it looked like I almost cried, and I almost did. I think that one was still too cold cause I forgot I needed two of them and only took out one at first then realized like 5 min later that I needed another one. :p Made my stomach sting more/longer afterwards where my leg just hurt when the liquid was going in.

Now I'm just watching out for side effects.
 
Did the second doses last night (in the stomach, forever in the stomach :p). I did ok.

Has Humira made anyone else really tired? I do have insomnia and have a really hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep but last night, I went out like a light and didn't get up when I heard my alarm, just reset over and over. I still feel like I could sleep more.


Another thing that bothers me is I have tingling and numbness in my back off and on for over a year now and I'm having a hard time telling if I'm feeling more tingling than usual. I know its listed as one of the more serious side effects but I just don't know what's causing it (didn't know the cause before the Humira) but as I sit here typing, it seems like the tingling and numbness is coming on faster than usual. :/
 
I'm really tired and I do get the tingling/numbness, but in my hands and feets. Both my primary care and GI doctor's have tested me for everything and I come through clean...but the tingling/numbness continues. I should say also that I had never had tingling/numbness. But, since liver/kidney function and everything else seems ok, they are going to wait it out.

I would definitely call your doctor though ASAP!!!!
 
Starting/being on Humira is scary but the chances are still pretty rare you will get a life threatening side effect. Try to relax and let the medicine work, the first injections you are getting 4 times the normal amount to shock your system so it is going to feel really weird and just not right for a little bit. The biggest thing to keep an eye out for are the allergic reaction side effects like trouble breathing.
 
When I first started Humira, it knocked me out, too. I was just totally fatigued and had to sleep a lot and felt like I could sleep even more. That was only after the first 2 or 3 injection days.
 
That's good to know, thanks guys. :)

GI is taking me off or 6MP (was taking 100mg). Going all stop tonight. I'm happy to get off it though. :)

Apparently my Rheumy called the GI and shared my blood work with him. Guess my blood work wasn't looking good. Unfortunately my GI just said he didn't want me on both of them and never mentioned the blood work. I got a call from the Rheumy office not long after the GI called saying that I should come off the 6MP. I said the GI just told me to and asked what was wrong. The guy didn't know any details just that apparently my blood work wasn't looking good.

I don't want to wait until Nov. to find out the results and will try going to the lab to get the results myself. My guess is that the 6MP wasn't in therapeutic levels and was probably affecting my liver. Again, still unknown but that would explain the two phone calls of telling me to stop it now.
 
Your doctors office can print a copy and email/fax it to you, I recommend getting copies of everything for your records, but also peace of mind.
 

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