Symptoms worse after starting Humira?

ok all, so i was on rem for 3 years or more worked insanely well, my body developed antibodies you know the drill, started humira a little over 3 weeks ago, now i can tell for sure symptoms are much worse, i talked to doc and calling him monday too, the second i start eating anything i have to bolt to the restroom, when i go, sorry for graphics, its just pure blood and mucus , a total mess, the occasional formed stool will pass along with the mucus but I'm left with a ton of mucus mess, is this the humira? has anyone else gotten this, i googled and read a bunch but haven't found much luck, or is it just the flare getting worse as the humira isn't doing much? thanks all

It's the flare getting worse, not the Humira. You're not going to see any significant healing at 3 weeks. Humira just stops the immune system attack on your colon. You've still got years worth of inflammation and ulceration that have to heal up.

My progress on Humira has been a little uneven but at 7 weeks it's remarkable. I'm like almost normal again.

Give it time.

csantamaria said...
Also it seems like the gas production now is insane with humira is that typical?

I have no gas with Humira and it's not a listed side effect. It's your UC. Try some green tea and pomegranate extracts. I had bad gas and mucus until I started them, and I recall them working fairly quickly. Both have clinical studies showing their benefit for UC.

csantamaria said...
Wow good Info I will check those out!

Here are a few of the studies if you want to take a look.

Green tea:

/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23846486

/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3672863/

Pomegranate:

/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24140585

When my UC was active I think those two supplements helped me cope with UC almost as much as the rx meds, which didn't seem to do anything for the mucus and the gas. I get mine from Vitamin Shoppe online. I just get the store brand. The others brands are just more expensive versions that get the extract from the same manufacturer.

BTW, I did the same thing you did. I called my doctor at around three weeks to see if I could go on weekly Humira injections since I didn't seem to be having much improvement. I wanted so badly for it to start working. It did. It just took more time. I think that people who've had UC for longer have more damage to the colon and your natural healing process, which can now go to work without being under constant attack from TNF-a, takes a long time.

Hang in there. If you go 8 weeks with no noticeable improvement it's time to try something else. But remicade worked for you, and Humira has the same mechanism of action.

Patience, grasshopper.

Thanks again
I just bought a ton of pomegranate juice at Costco is an 8 oz glass a day enough ?

Ok good deal I will order both of these tonight too