My 1st dose of Humira!!

good luck with it & i hope it gives you flare free future . also a big congrats on quiting smoking- that is great.

hello vicky

I have just started to feel the Humia working and have been on it now about 3 months. It varies with the person and how severe your Crohn's is. My bm have decreased in recent weeks, but still have fatigue and ocassional D, but overall I do see an improvement.

Good luck to you, the worst part are the loading doses after that once every 2 weeks is not too bad.

Hi Vicky, I hope the Humira works wonders for you. I will keep you in my prayers and thoughts.

tbw

Grats on starting the Humira! I just beat ya by a couple days. : ) I did my loading dose last Tuesday. Kinda funny how it went... The previous Friday, I had picked up my Humira syringes. I called my GI's MA, and asked her if I could go ahead and do the injections, as I had watched the training video already. She said no, I needed to do them under supervision in the office in case I had a reaction. Well, during my GI's visit, I asked him if I should do the injections right then. He said no, I could do them when I got home. ::scratches head:: So after he left, the MA came in, and I told her what he said. She kinda smirked a bit, then said to go ahead and do them while she watched. She had no epi pen, nor did she tell me I needed one to take home. Go figure. Anyway, three of the four shots I did were a non-event. Hardly even noticeable. But I must have hit a bad spot on one, cause it did burn alot more than I expected. I did two in each leg, btw.

That night, I did have a bit of a headache, but nothing other than that. The next day, the muscles in my leg felt fatigued all day long. The following day, I felt run down, and started getting "flu sydrome" symptoms, which peaked yesterday; I felt horrible all day. Muscle aches and pains that really did mimic the flu. Kept me from sleeping well last night. But today I feel much better. Crohns symptoms aside (ugh), I feel good. I know us Crohnies are supposed to stay away from ibuprofen (although recent info says it might be ok), but I took some yesterday and last night. It helped alot with the flu syndrome.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that this is the med that's gonna do it for us. Kinda discouraging to hear how long it can take to start working, though.

Edit: Forgot to mention... My head cold was not made worse by the Humira, thank heavans. It kept improving even after the Humira shots, and is completly gone now. I'm not endorsing nor recommending that anyone start Humira with an active infection; what I did was, quite frankly, stupid. I took a huge risk by starting the Humira with a head cold, and I got lucky.

Dunny2, did you do all of your shots in the tummy, then?

I had called the Humira hotline about the head cold. The lady said that they considered any type of upper respiratory infection an "active infection" per the prescribing information, and told me to not start it until it was completely gone. My problem was that I had my GI appointment the next day, and if I wasn't able to start then, I'd have to wait til my next appointment with him. He's booked over four weeks in advance. That would delay my starting for a month. It's a long story, but I can't go back to work until i have a month's history on the Humira. So it was either delay going back to work for another thirty days, or roll the dice and start the Humira with the head cold.

Have you had any "flu syndrome" symptoms at all since your loading dose? I've been reading around, and apparently it's quite common. I was about ready to call my GI in a panic before I read about how common it really is.

I'm very encouraged to hear about your quick results on Remicade. Sure hope we get the same result with the Humira.

I'm going to try and get my GI to discontinue the Entocort as soon as the Humira kicks in.

Vicky,
Congrats on your first dose and no need for the epi pen.  That is awesome.
I have to give you a lot of kudos for quitting smoking.  That is super awesome and you did it.  How proud you must feel?

Keep posting to let us know how the treatment is and know we are here for you. Gentle Hugs.

Trsora1, how bad is your Crohn's? I only ask, because of the time it took for Humira to start working for you. Casual observation has me believing that the worse the crohns is, the longer it takes to work. Plus, I see you're taking solumedrol, which I think is usually reserved for people with really severe crohns, or at least in a severe flare.