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Humira painful or not? at injection time

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Posted 9/28/2012 4:00 AM (GMT 0)

confused  

Hello all - I am new to this site. My son has Auto immune Post/pan chronic uveitis. We have been in flare up mode it seems forever. nearly 3 years. We have hit remission twice but never for long. Of course he is 13 and active...but we do our best to keep him healthy. I am wondering 2 things really:

1) He is taking Humira now by injection (syringe) - and the needle itself was fine, but the medication seemed to really sting him? will this ever not happen? room temperature medication make a difference over refridgerated? stomach or thigh? can you take it via arm? what is your experience on Humira - we had none of these issues on Methotrexate.

2) what type of side effects did you most deal with? and your age please? any other kids dealing with this?

thanks for your help all - it was just so hard for me to hear him telling me it hurt once I started pushing the medication in.

Uveitis Mom

Posted 9/30/2012 12:48 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Uvieits mom and welcome to the forum. I am sorry to hear that your son has been struggling for so long with this disease. I also have crohns disease and have been doing the Humira injections for nearly 4 years. Yes, the Humira stings like crazy always, at least it has been that way with me and in the beginning my nurse said everyone complains of this.

If I remember correctly the packaging says the Humira can be injected in the tops of the legs ad stomach. I cannot get my nerve up to stick my stomach so I do the legs. Now, when I get ready to inject the leg I also pinch up the skin being careful not to pull the skin & I believe this helps somewhat with the stinging. I also let the Humira set out the day of injection. I take it out of the refrigerator that morning and inject it that evening making sure it is not in the sunlight. That is suppose to help with the stinging too.

Are you using the prefilled pens or regular syringe. If you are using the regular syringe, you may want to switch to the pens, I have heard its much better using the pens. The pens are the only thing I have used.

I have not had any side effects from the Humira at all. Knock on wood. Before Humira I did the Remicade infusions and ended up developing antibodies to it. My age is 58.

I hope the Humira will help your son and you will keep us posted on how he is doing. Take care...Susie
Posted 10/26/2012 1:11 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks for replying straydog.

We are at yet again another Humira night as my son calls them. He is pretty anxious tonight. At 13 this just stinks..but hopefully we will only be doing this for a little while. although 2 years will not seem little. In any case, to answer your question we use the syringe. It's funny you say that the pen gets more cuddo's our doctor said they have more people return switching to the needle.

In any case, at this point we are using Lidocaine and Prilocaine cream to help a little bit. Doesn't do much. I am leaving it on a full 30 minutes tonight. I know it's only topical, but my hopes is that this week it will help ease the injection into the body and cause less irritation.

As for leaving the medication out. Both our pharmacist and our nurse suggested that this could hurt the integrity of the medication. So I am concerned about doing so. But many people have suggested it. I hope to get through tonight and plug the Dr. tomorrow for some more insight on this. To see if he feels the integrity loss is worth us working to stay on the meds longer.

Thanks for your post. I look forward to more as time passes. I am finding that sites like this are helping to put a mother to ease a little. I know the individuals such as yourself who are afflicted with health issues go through a lot, but us moms just tear up seeing our babies in pain. So I thank you for your transparency, and look forward to hearing about others experiences..thanks... cool

Posted 10/30/2012 7:54 PM (GMT 0)
Try putting the syringe in a cup of hot water to get it to room temp. My husband does this on his diabetes medicine. Susie
Posted 11/9/2012 2:48 AM (GMT 0)
Hey Straydog,

So amazing break through tonight. so thankful...as a mom I was beginning to think I couldn't give him these shots anymore and I have been giving him shots for some time. It's just this darn medication. So, the doctor approved us to leave it out up to like 12 hours, but would prefer only a couple hours, so we left it out about 3 hours, I used the lidacaine and prilacaine cream and put a tegaderm patch over it and let it sit about 35-40 minutes. I removed the patch, rubbed the cream in a little - not until it was clear, but then I wiped away excess, cleaned with the alcohol swab and then gave him his medication he barely flinched. I think it helped he was playing video games this time for perfect distraction...but he was like, mom did you push it in, that felt like the prick. He only complained when he lifted his arm, and said that as he was looking at it that was stinging but nothing like what he has dealt with before. What a turning point. at our last visit he expressed it was bad enough that we thought this could be a deal breaker...so, on we go...we will continue thankfully, because the medication is working and fast. so we will need to do this for 2 years without any flare ups before they believe he has a high probably of unlikeliness of flare ups again. praise the Lord.
Posted 11/9/2012 4:56 PM (GMT 0)
I am so, so glad the dr gave you the ok on letting the Humira get to room temp. When I did the initial set of injections at the drs office, the nurse and I rolled those pens in our hands for a long time trying to warm it up before injecting. Both of them warned me it would not be very nice trying to inject with it cold, lol.

Keep up the good work......Susie
Posted 11/15/2012 4:15 PM (GMT 0)
I have been on Humiria for a few months now. I have found that injecting into my buttocks is less painful and sometimes can't feel a thing. That is just me. Could be different for others. It hurt to much in the stomach and the thigh.
Kody
Posted 11/15/2012 4:16 PM (GMT 0)
I use the pen instead of the syringe. Much easier.
Kody
Posted 11/15/2012 6:57 PM (GMT 0)
Kody did your dr give the ok to inject there???
Posted 11/18/2012 3:31 PM (GMT 0)
the pen hurts worse than a syringe. the medicine hurts like the dickens. it does help to let it warm up but i remember i used to have to lay in bed for the rest of the day until the pain subsided. i used to do it in my stomach since there was not enough subcutaneous fat on my thighs. i also used to get migranes from it for a week after injection. This was when I was 20 or so
Posted 11/21/2012 1:37 AM (GMT 0)
I always use the pen & let it set out to warm it and yes it burns somewhat but not for long.
Posted 1/4/2013 7:29 PM (GMT 0)
I used the pen also and I remember that I let it warm up for about an hour and used my stomach and only had a slight pain from the medication. Never had any pain from the pen except for the medication which didn't last long maybe a minute when warmed up.
Posted 11/10/2013 6:02 PM (GMT 0)

seahawks said...
I use the pen instead of the syringe. Much easier.
Kody


Yes I use the Pen too and this is so much easier.
After 25 years of chronic psoriasis I am plaque free and can lead a normal life (other than restricted travel to fit in with injection supply).
This has been a life changer for me. I have psoriatic arthritis as well and this has been stopped in its tracks too.
I feel much healthier (2 1/2 yrs of treatment) than I have done for years. Before psoriasis governed my life. I now feel "normal"
Posted 4/10/2014 2:24 PM (GMT 0)
Hi, I'm a new member to this forum. I was diagnosed with RA in 2005 and been on Methotrexate ever since. For the last year I was on Xeljanz which helped some but still did not control my flare-ups well enough. I've remained flared up more than not for almost two years now. cry I'll take my second Humira injection today using the prefilled pen. The first injection wasn't too bad at all. The medicine had just arrived so it was cool from the packaging but not as cold as from the refrigerator. It did sit awhile before use as I read all of the instructions thoroughly. I injected into my stomach (I've watched my mother do her insulin there for years and it doesn't seem to hurt her). I did feel some burning for a little while but it really wasn't bad so I was really surprised when I started reading this thread. I'm am SOOO hoping that this medicine is going to help.
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