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Starting Humira..any tips/suggestions.??

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 10/14/2014 10:33 PM (GMT 0)
So came back frm my GI's office. I am having formed stool but frequency has increased specially in morning. 4-5 times then 2-3 times through out the day. Seeing little blood on tissue and sometimes drops in the morning. I am on lialda, uceris amd canasa. Starting humira once it arrives in mail. I heard the shots hurt sometimes. Any suggestion or tricks to reduce the pain? And how long does it take to work. To back to normal like 1-2 BM per day. Thanx in advance
Posted 10/14/2014 11:42 PM (GMT 0)
Set the humira pen out of the fridge about 20-30 minutes before you inject (to knock the chill off). The thigh always worked best for me but others find the stomach hurts less. I never had a problem w/ the humira pens and didn't think they hurt.
Posted 10/15/2014 1:38 AM (GMT 0)
anyone else had success with humira?
Posted 10/15/2014 3:30 AM (GMT 0)
I switched from remicade to humira back in January because of health insurance issues. It did not work at all for me and I went into a full blown flare. Still in flare (although better) since going back on remi in May. It definitely works for some though. Hope it works for you.
Posted 10/15/2014 3:36 AM (GMT 0)
Oh and I forgot to tell you I was very nervous about doing the shots in my stomach so did them in my thighs for a long time. Finally decided to try stomach and it was so much better! Definitely let pen warm up for 20 min. or so. I used to ice my legs before shots but I don't think it really helped. This may sound weird but I got very anxious when having to give myself a shot. I used to play some favorite music really loud in my headphones and sing to kind of distract myself from what I was doing if that makes any sense at all. :)
Posted 10/15/2014 9:39 AM (GMT 0)
I was on Humira for a while; it worked for about 3 weeks (for the loading doses basically) and then wore off. It did work quite quickly though, within less than a week, I was feeling much better.

I took the injections out of the fridge about 30-60 mins before injecting. In the starter pack I got, there was a mini ice pack that I would put in the freezer for this time also and then put it on where I was going to inject for about 30 seconds. I don't know if it makes much of a difference, but you could try it!
I found my thigh to be much easier to do - I always did it near the top of my thigh, at the part with the most flesh. I tried on my stomach when doing loading doses, and it was much sorer! The nurse said that it's because I'm very skinny, so there isn't much to cushion it - might be something to consider also.
The thigh hurt slightly for me, but nothing extreme at all - more like a tingling for a couple of mins, then sometimes it felt like a small bruise for a couple of days after.

Good luck, I hope it works for you!
Posted 10/15/2014 4:48 PM (GMT 0)
The pain from the shot tends to happen if the medicine is still too cold, I let it warm up for about 10 minutes to room temperature before I give myself the shot, always in the thigh (I had my loading doses done in the belly and the pens were no longer cold, but it hurt like hell cuz the skin on my tummy is more sensitive compared to my thighs) the nurse told me to alternate legs from one shot to the next rather than always doing the same leg. I don't think you're suppose to let the Humira medicine get overly warm/hot based on what I read in the instructions.

Always check your pens before injecting...look for the medicine to be clear, you're not suppose to use cloudy pens or pens that look like anything is floating around in it or discolored, it suppose to be completely clear...you're also suppose to double check the expiry date on the pen before use as well.

It no longer hurts now that I let the pen warm up a bit, for the most part anyway....I also pinch the area a couple of times before I hold the pinched area on the top of my thigh to prepare my skin for the needle too and doing that makes a world of difference, I rarely end up with a bruise anymore from my shots. I inject on the top of my thigh to make sure I'm holding the pen at the proper 90 degree angel that you're suppose to hold it while injecting (straight up and down, not on any slanted angel).
Posted 10/15/2014 8:17 PM (GMT 0)
I was on Humira for a year after Remicade, it didn't really work. I usually always had pain injecting it and it didn't seem to matter what I did. Leaving it out for so long or anything. I ended up figuring out the pain depending on how well I managed to get it into the right tissue, and everyone's body make up is different. Sometimes it was not very painful if I did it just right, but for me it was always really painful! If you do enough googling you'll realize that a lot of people have this problem (painful injection).

I'm on Simponi now and have found that they've really designed a much better pen. It doesn't require lifting or squeezing any skin to inject like Humira not to mention you just press it down and press and hold and absolutely nothing from the needle is felt. Seems they've used a smaller needle and an easier injection process. I have high hopes this drug will work for me, but I'm only on the 2nd starting dose tomorrow!
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