Humira and Ulcerative Colitis

I have been using Humira for about 6 months, and yes it has work wonders for me. I was in and out of the hospital  3 times in 2 months. They tried everything and nothing worked, it was try Humira or have the everrything removed. I was having urges 30 to 40 timesa day. The prednisone made me crazy(thank god ahave a strong and loving family). I had Diverticulitis 3 years ago and had a re-section.and  that all went well.   Colitis is a very strange beast,what works for one does not work for another. Also the mental part to me is the hardest part, you fell good a few days and then bad the next. I am working hard to get off the prednisone, I wason 40 mg before the Humira,dropped 5 mg every 2 weeks, however going from 10 to5 I thought i was going to come out of my skin, also I could not get out of bed. went back to 10 mg,and dropping by 2.5mg every 2 week. So far so good.I want off prednisone, for me It made me nuts.   Anways Humira is working for me.

I started a clinical trial for humira two weeks ago and go in for my second round of injections tomorrow. I'm praying that I didn't get the placebo. The injections hurt worse than any shot I have ever had. I'm hoping this means I got the drug, but maybe they use a placebo that has the same thickness as humira. Anyway, I have noticed some improvement over the last two weeks, more formed bm's. I'm nowhere close to remission but now am able to sit through class without having to run to the restroom a bunch of times.

Good luck on trying the Humira. Hope you can experience wonderful remission with this drug. Struggling with UC in highschool must be annoying.

Ive been on humira since about oct 2008. At first didnt really notice a difference except i bruised very easy. But last 3 or 4 weeks i have noticed a real difference in the pain is not so bad and the BM frequincy is lower (only 1 to 3 times a day). I live in the states and my insurance would have nothing to do with paying for it. I applied for help through a online resource and was approved for 1 year with it. I still have to be careful with what i eat (suger is bad as well as most milk products) but i feel alot better. I wouldnt say im in remission becouse i still hurt occasionally but the blood is gone im off prednisone and the urgency is gone. Hope this helps you. If this didnt work i was to see a surgeon so im hoping it will last.

Hmm, good thread. I have had 3 Remicade infusions and so far it is rather disappointing to say the least- seems to kick in gradually after a few days and then lasts only for a couple weeks. So it helps, but only weakly, and I can't get below around 12.5 mg of pred it seems without reflaring. I'm also keen to see if Humira is a viable option of remicade becomes a failure. Probably I should try a double dose of remicade first, if my GI lets me. Like others posting here I am also close to thinking to heck with this insanity and just pursue surgery. But I'd at least like to know if maybe double Remi or Humira (if my insurance will allow it) might finally do the trick. I am going to try home brewed fecal infusions too, before resorting to surgery. Just started TSO again to see if maybe it assists the Remicade.

Sure is.

I was on 2 injections every 2 weeks for over a year and a half. Just went down to 1 shot. My GI told me that it works better to maintain UC better due to how flared you are. My new GI is considering bumping me back up if needed, so far so good on the 1 shot though.

I was told if your on 6MP medication and then decide to take Remicade or Humira. There is a slight chance of getting cancer? Is there any truth to this? Did your gi doc talk to anyone about this before starting Remicade or Humira?

Humira is not yet FDA approved for UC, but doctors are prescribing it off-label. The real issue is whether insurance will cover it or not. Many will not pay for any drug that is not FDA approved for your condition. I'm hearing that it could be approved as soon as this fall, though.

We do have people here who have had good results on Humira after failing Remicade.

for those wanting to know about humira after failing remicade, i didnt have a reaction to remicade just it started to not work for me until after it just didnt work at all so i skipped on it for about a year not taking anything and i wound up having a cpl of really bad years so i finally got a new doctor (not that my old doctor was bad but insurance switched and i had to find a new one) one stay in the hospital out of several my doctor tried to get me to take humira at first insurance said yes then after i took first dose they said no so i tried to argue and everything but to no avail insurance will not cover for me becouse it is not for UC i found a really great website that helps people that dont have insurance or cant afford it and they approved me for humira. that is becouse my doctor prescribed it for me . my advice is if remicade failed fopr you, (if you miss i think its 3 months or more your body builds up a protein or something and you cannot ever try remicade again) try humira. humira doesnt work all the way for me i still have discomfort and some small pain but nothing luike it was before. my doctor has talked to me about trying 2 pens instead of 1 every 2 weeks but to be honest i havnt put much more thought into it, sorry if this dont help i dont stop by here as much as i should :) i think there was something in the rules of this forum about posting web addies so i wont post it but if the mods say its kool ill post the web addy for the place that helped me :)

I've been on it through a trial since April 2008. The first time I got injections (which I didn't know were actually Humira, since it was double blind at that point), I got 4 at once. Since then they have been bi-weekly. I go every 12 weeks now, and they send me home with the shots.

It worked like a dream for the first 9ish months. Absolute perfection for me-no blood, no urgency, just one or two BMs a day. Totally normal.

Since then, it has slowly been losing effectiveness for me. I have had to add in other meds, and even still I am struggling to keep things in remission. I go in tomorrow and plan on discussing it with them because I honestly don't know where we will go from here.

Side effects are not much for me-and they haven't said anything about my labs, so I assume everything is as it should be on that front as well. It burns when you inject it, but if you let it warm up a few minutes before injection, that helps. And the injection site is tender for me for a few minutes as well. Those things are small prices to pay for remission, if it works for you. Otherwise, I haven't noticed much in the way of side effects.

Doc said it usually takes about 2 years for these things to be approved after positive trial results are seen. I am not sure when all of the trials started-our first person was done with the year one double blind trial (the most important for approval) in Nov. 2008-I was done in April 2009. (I am in an open label study now) So hopefully within the next year or so, it will be approved for UC.

Good luck all!

Hey, Im on humira for UC and so far so good. I was on remicade and that was great then I got married had a baby and I don't have time for a two hour infusion!!!

Hello,
I know this is an old thread. My father started humira a month ago for his Colitis. He has had it for around 15 years and nothing has worked to help him.

My question is- for people who saw results from the Humira- how long did it take to see improvements? He is getting frustrated because he is not feeling better at all.

Thank you for your help!