Humira for Proctitis or UC?

Humira is sometimes necessary for a Ulcerative Proctitis that does not respond to lesser meds. Everyone is initially a little scared of the next class of medications, myself included. What helped me greatly was to look at the actual risks versus benefits. The short version is the benefits far outweigh the risks. Here's a good watch/read from the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America on it that goes through the odds of various side effects:
Webcast: programs.rmei.com/CCFA139VL/presentation/player.html
Transcript: http://www.ccfa.org/assets/pdfs/risk-and-benefits-transcript.pdf

I've been on Remicade which is a sister medication to Humira since 2012 and have not experienced a side effect from it but I did achieve my first remission.

Hi Quincy & iPoop,

Thanks for responding to my forum questions so fast. You both have lots of knowledge to share, and it really makes me feel better knowing there are others out there dealing with UC.

I posted this reply to you in another post, regarding my current flare symptoms and treatment:
My flare consists of minor stomach pains, more urgency to go, three soft morning stools that have a combination of blood and mucous. My GI gave me a one-month script for Canasa (along with my ongoing script for Apriso) and said that if the flare didn't go away after 30 days, he wanted to switch me to Humira. This seemed crazy to me, since this is only my first flare since diagnosis.

I like the idea of suggesting Rowasa 4g to him in place of Canasa. Would I use that only until the symptoms dissipated, or while in remission too?

You could try more mesalamine to beat this flare. If it works and you can sustain a remission, then consider lowering the dosage again. Mesalamine is rather hard to overdose on at UC dosages. The most I've taken is 4.8 grams Lialda a day, 8 grams of rectal route rowasa (2 x 4.0g rowasa enema a day) for a total of 12.8 grams per day.

There's immunosuppressants (azathioprine/imuran and 6mp) than can be tried before Humira.

There's steroids that can be tried first, a steroid foam, enema or suppository.

Hard to say if you need Humira now. Certainly other things can be tried first, if you are so inclined. If not, humira is strong and may well knock the flare out promptly. Know all of your options, go prepared to talk them through with your gasteroenterologist and then decide together what the best approach is. There's pros and cons to everything, and a time in which various treatments are indeed appropriate. Depends how bad you're flaring, how your responding, and how long you want to wait in order to get better (some meds are slower and quicker than others are).

In the first year of diagnosis, I had a stand in GI while mine was away. I was flaring badly, and need refills for the salofalk enemas. He balked at my GI's treatment of the mesalamine both end approach and said if I were his patient, he would have put me on Prednisone fro the start. I told him I was relieved he's not my doctor.

You have power in knowledge, other's experiences and knowledge and in your own voice. Make a request.....it's not an unreadonable one. But make sure you're willing to do the process.
If it works for you, it will sustain for a long time.

q