Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives Anti TNF and other biological medications Hellooo Humira

haha Ben you always make me smile. Thanks for that.
Retail therapy might have to take the online form today. Not doin so good. Not at all. But hanging in there.
4 and a half weeks and counting....

Holy cow are you kidding me!?!??!

How could I be such a fantastic enbrel responder and 5 weeks of humira and nothing?!?! ARGH!

Nothing yet.

And what point can I call it quits?

The vertigo is what's going to drive me to the brink.

Hi Megan,

I appreciate your updates. I hate to sound like a broken record but.....it took almost 4 months for me to see REAL improvement on Humira. I was very sick a few weeks ago and had to miss a shot by 1 week. That was 2 days ago and I feel sooo much better today. I was suffering badly with the delay.

I know how difficult it is to wait, but I would try to hang on a bit longer.

Take care,
Jessie

Hi Jessie,
You definately do not sound like a broken record. I need some hope, so I appreciate your post.
I highly doubt my rheumy is going to give me another freebie box of humira at this point, since he seemed to think I'd know if it was going to work or not after 4 weeks/2 shots (I have no idea where he gets this idea). So, my bf has offered to help me out and buy me one more box. After that box is done, then I guess I'll have to decide what to do next. That will give me a total trial of 6 shots/12 weeks. Hope that's going to be enough...

Hi Megan,

I saw my rheumy last week, and he told me that 70 % respond to biologics and if not methotrexate or one of the DMARDS should be added, and the the % rate increaaes to about 80 %. I also wondered if you went back to Enbrel + Methotrexate. I don't know if you can add Methotrexate to Humira I can't remember if you can or can't take Mehotrexate, have you ever taken Methotrexte ? I am thinkin gbaout you lots these days, I do hope it sure kicks in soon. Maybe with less stress with school finished for this year will help .

Take Care,
Janet

Megan,

I am sure it took 2 months for me to see improvement. I remember my gp telling me 6 weeks and I know I took longer. So if you can hang in there it may kick in yet. Also my rhuemy told me that if you have success with enbrel that remicade will likely work for you and that humira works differently from them. Have you tried remicade yet??? Well Megan I really hope this starts working for you soon!!!

Debbie

Hi Janet,
I've been thinking about you too. Hope everything is ok over there.
I asked my rheumy about adding mtx...but since I already gave mtx a trial of a year at 25mg/week with no success (just alot of nausea and hairloss), he said to give that idea up.

That, and he knows I'm in a relationship and we want kids one day - I'm not sure why he doesn't think I can keep my ovaries under control, and thinks I'm going to wind up preggers while on mtx. We have no intention of having kids anytime soon. All my docs have been VERY hesitant to prescribe mtx to me since I'm childbearing age, like they think I could look at a guy and end up preggers.

Life is actually surprisingly unstressful at the moment. I live alone, I'm working from home parttime (now, usually in a bikini on my balcony), I'm taking an extra course online this summer which is at my own pace, and writing my thesis is at my own pace too. After my rheumy made a call, the school has all of a sudden become very accomodating. Funny how that works. And I have a fantastic guy who gives me lots of massages, and more often than not, whisks me off to the mountains on weekends.

The pain isn't all that bad at the moment (meaning I can walk when I add celebrex and t3s to the humira), because I'm loaded to the gills on steroids too, which also helps the insane vertigo going on. But I know I can't do this forever since I already have osteoporosis (at my last bone density anyways. Hopefully it's improved). My rheumy would shoot me if he knew I went back to prednisone.



Thanks so much for your concern though Janet. Sounds like this might just take some more time...

Hi Debbie,
A question for you (yet another! Thanks so much for answering all my silly questions):

Did you know at 6 weeks that it was going to work though? Could you feel it starting?

At 11 days on enbrel I could feel it starting to work, and I just knew it was going to do the trick. Every day there was improvement, slowly, up until about the 2 month mark where I had about 95% reduction in pain.

But humira has been so different than enbrel. (I'm glad I didn't burn my crutches. lol)

My anxiety is in that I don't feel anything from humira, I don't think. I just want some sort of sign!!!! If it takes 3 months to kick in, then great, but I need some sort of sign to give my rheumy (and me) so that he keeps writing me scripts or providing me with trial boxes of humira. Argh.

I haven't tried remicade yet, so that will be the next one, most likely. But honestly, I wanted to "save" that one for later on in life for when it was really, super important for me, like if I had kids to run around after. I don't want to burn through all the good meds before I'm 33.

Thanks Debbie!

I think 12 weeks is a very fair trial period. I really hope you'll see a successful result soon, soon, soon.

Your bf sounds like a very special person. I wish you could convince your doc to float you one more free box. Perhaps you could mention this forum and that there are folks who have, in fact, seen dramatic improvement in just after 3 months.

Good luck and will be thinking of you,
Jessie