Considering Humira

I have had Crohn's since early 1960's and no longer have large intestines and only half of small. I am 64 year old male. The Crohn's has been treated by surgeries and prednisone. I did try pentasa and imuran but I could not tolerate either. Being on prednisone is very hard on me now. Causes many other problems. I am thinking of Humira. Would like thoughts of this. Thank you.






Gave your post a heading so more members will see your post.

Post Edited By Moderator (straydog) : 8/25/2017 8:42:58 AM (GMT-6)

Hi Gerry, welcome to Healing Well. I am assuming your dr has proposed Humira to you. Medications for treatment have come a very long way since you started your journey. I, for one would urge you to give Humira a try. I was on Remicade for three & a half years, then went to Humira. Convenience wise it was great, no more infusions, lol. I had very good success with both of these meds. Humira stings a little, has to be kept refrigerated. I would let my pen sit on the counter for a bit to warm up & that helped. I know many people are scared of the newer meds when they read about potential side effects, or see the commercials on tv. You just have to keep in mind not everyone has side effects. These side effects occurred during the trials with these meds & must be listed as a potential side effect. By law they have to be listed & this is a CYA for the drug makers. With all meds just keep in mind it takes time for them to be completely effective. Prednisone long term is just not good for anyone. My days of Prednisone are over.

There are a lot of great members in this forum that will come along & offer up their experiences. You can also use the search feature above & type in Humira & can read old threads about it.

Take care.

I've been on Remicade, a sister medication to Humira, for 3+ years and achieved a good remission (that is, an absence of IBD symptoms) thanks to it. Have yet to experience a side effect on it.

We're all a little nervous when going to a new class of medications and the possibility of serious side effects can scare us spitless. What really helped me when initially considering going on these medications was weighing the actual odds of risks versus benefits. Let's start with the odds of benefits, what are the odds that Humira will help improve your Crohn's symptoms? about 63% of patients see an improvement within their symptoms thanks to Humira. How about those scary side effects we see on the label? The most concerning one occurs in 6 in 10,000 patients (or 0.06 percent odds). It's very, very long odds. The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America is the source for these statistics and has a very good risks versus benefits explaination:
Webcast: programs.rmei.com/CCFA139VL/presentation/player.html
Transcript: http://www.ccfa.org/assets/pdfs/risk-and-benefits-transcript.pdf