Starting humira and i have a few questions.

I’m starting humira on Thursday, just received my delivery of the needles/pens today. I’m Hopeful these will work.

I’m currently on 200mg Azathioprine and 10mg prednisone. I have been on various dosages of prednisone for over a year unable to get below 10mg without having a flare. When I start humira on Thursday I have been told I should be off prednisone within 2 weeks and I have also been given a 2 week course of antibiotics to take while I am taking all 3 medications.

Is timescale of 2 weeks realistic? Because from what I have read it can take months for humira to start working also what are the negatives taking azathioprine, prednisone and humira all at the same time?

It seems like im in a lose lose situation. I think 2 weeks is way to fast aswell, but i dont know how i will react to taking all 3 at once.I guess i just see how many body reacts and fingers crossed that 2 weeks is long enough to get off prednisone.

Some people wait 12 weeks before they see improvement, when I was in humira for 3 months I was also on prednisone for the whole time as well and I never got an infection or sick (just the flare up). But some people can get a lot of infections it’s different for everyone!

Hi OP here
OK so im about 2 and half weeks in. I have just dropped down to 2mg of prenisone but I feel awful. I guess 2 weeks was too fast, I have stomach cramps my energy has gone I’m going to toilet multiple times and blood when going to toilet, not having a great time right now. I have also been suffering with the flu for the last week not sure if its because I’m taking these 3 medications or just a coincidence.

I’m Unsure what to do because I don’t want to take any time off work. I really feel if I don’t go back up on my prednisone I will just get worse over time. But I don’t know how bad this will knock my immune system and could make my flu worse or even get an infection.

Not having a good time right now : (

Worse bit is I need to be fixed by April!!! Right now I work evenings and I calm down a bit by the evening but from April I will be starting at 8am and right now the mornings are hell.

Its my understanding that if you are on immune suppresants, you need to notify your doctor if you have to flu. You are at greater risk for complications. Hope you feel better soon!

I have been told that 6 weeks is the norm to start to see a response, however I am on humira now and previously took it for a year before. On both occasions when I started it had all but stopped a bad flare in its tracks by a week and completely stopped it by two.

I'm not over exaggerating. The first time round I had been flaring for a year before i started it and it stopped it almost immediately. So it is possible

Humira worked for me the very first time I took it 4 shots. Was in remission for almost 5 years until I developed antibodies. I like an idiot stopped taking it not knowing you would develop antibodies. I just kept some in the fridge and figured if things start up again I’ll just take it. Apparently that’s not how things work, I’m at what seems to be the end of a 8month flare thanks to Entyvio. I do feel I would still be in remission had I stayed on Humira the right way. I had zero side effect and I’m exposed frequently to all kinds of illness due to my profession, I never got sick. Humira was a great drug for me I hope it treats you the same.
Me

Thanks for everyone’s responses it makes me feel like I’m not going through this alone. You’re all amazing people.

Another thing to worry about. I don’t think it’s c.diff as I’m worse in the morning. Which is typical when I’m flaring. I’m guessing I would be really bad all day with c.diff. But I could be wrong

I have had uc for at least 12 years. I've tried every medicine out there before I did humira then remicade. Although it did help I noticed after the second infusion but it came at a awful price for my skin I started breaking out all over head to feet in big psoriasis and pústulas psoriasis tho they thought they said it was not from the medicine I just developed it out of the blue. So they kept giving the med I finally said enough I currently still have painful sores all over, hair out in chunks with painful sores,I can't walk right from the blistering sores on my feet. I finally got a new dermatologist that did a biopsy and I was allergic to the biologics humira and remicade and it takes a very long time to get over I'm 6 months now after my last infusion and still in sever pain. I honestly wished I'd never took it and opted for a bag. I don't mean to scare anyone it's just my experience with it.

I was told the same thing. This was 5 months ago. I am now still on humira and prednisone and have since added many more medications. Doesn't seem to be any sign of improvement. That is just me though. I have heard many people getting better on humira and eventually eliminating all other medications.

You can always add mesalamine back to your list of meds. If you can get down to 10mgs of pred then perhaps also taking asacol/mezavant/lialda and/or rowasa enemas would help. Cumulative affect of many meds might be enough to get you there. It took a heck of a lot of uc meds for me to achieve a remission.

Upped to 30mg of pred to finally get control. Still a bit of blood but but my stomach finally seems to be calming down. Need to start tapering asap I’ve had about 6 hours sleep over the past 3 days. Constant night sweats and clammy days.

A B+ for Humira? I hope it works for me soon. As for the injection itself I find it almost painless. I’ve seen a lot of people say it Hurts I don’t know if I’m using a different needle or a lower dosage (I believe I’m 40mg) or it could be I’ve just done bloods so many times I’m use to needles.

I’m about 5 weeks into humira now👍

Post Edited (Dan Embrey) : 3/24/2018 1:39:09 AM (GMT-6)