Crohn's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis Support Group

I have been on Hunira now for about 10 months. It seems to help quite a bit. I am not in remission, but I don't have as many flares as I did in the past. I got relief after a few injections. I started out with 4 injectoins the first day, and then one injection every other week. I was also on Pentessa, but I recenlty stopped taking it. I had too many bad side effects from it. Are you on any other meds? Have you had CD for a long time?
I pray the Humira helps you and you feel better.
Hugs,
Dolores

I started on the 4 shot loading dose on 12/31 and went into full remission within 48 hours. I had one shot on day 15. But my insurance changed and it would not cover Humira for UC. I had to go thru a bunch of invasive tests to come up with a DX for Crohn's so that insurance would cover. But that didn't happen until mid March. The next GI was very conservative and would not start me back on the loading dose. He said "let's try one injection and see what happens". I fired him and went to another GI would increased to 80 mgs per week, but the Humira never worked again.

I hope that it works for you, wishing you the best.

I was on Humira for 16 months. It provided some noticable relief, but it never really kicked me into remission. I was on a low dose of prednisone for much of that time, but no other drugs. During that time I tried various diets and suppliments and deperately tried to get a full remission. I didn't notice any strange side effects, but I progressively got weaker and weaker. This could be due to the drug or due to UC. Since I could not get off prednisone I signed up for surgery. On Aug 10, 2009 my 25 year battle with UC ended when my colon was removed and a j-pouch was formed. On Oct 12th my bowels were reconnected. In the past 3 weeks my j-pouch just gets better and better. Now I am free of meds and can eat just about anything without worries. When you think you ave exhausted all medical and dietary methods to reduce your symptoms, you may want to take a serious look at surgery. I wish good health for you.

I've been on Humira for over 3 years and have been doing fairly well. My disease is so far spread that there really isn't much they can do but ease the pain and try to slow down the stools.
My doctor started me on weekly and has kept me on weekly.

I was on Humira for several months for my UC and had enough relief (along with taking prednisone and Imuran, a ton of herbal supplements, and undertaking diet stuff) to get back to work for a couple months. It never put me into remission, just got me out of the house, and the side effects I had seemed to get worse with time. I started with the 4 shot loading dose, coming right off of Remicade, and did a weekly shot over the course of about 4-5 months. At first things were ok, then side effects started to occur. For 24 hours after the shot I would be sick as a dog and unable to function. Then this turned into 48 hours. Eventually I found myself taking the week to recover from the shot only to have to do it again. I finally decided that it wasn't a way to live, I'd been through all drug options, many diets and natural healing options, and I decided to get surgery.

Here's hoping it works for you. It seems like if those drugs work for someone, they work very well with minimal side effects. One piece of advice-- USE THE ICE PACK!! :)

I've been on Humira since Nov/2007. I was on one shot every two weeks up until August of 2008, and I ended up back in the hospital for a week. My doc changed the dose to one shot weekly. I am not in remission, but this drug does help me to live a better quality of life and to be able to work full time and function. I still have times when food goes right through me 5 minutes after I eat, but it is not a daily thing anymore. I would say I have trouble mostly in the mornings, and I get up about 4 hours before I have to be at work to make sure it is all OUT of my system before leaving the house.

Good luck to you. This drug, like many of the drugs out there, doesn't work for everyone....but for me it has been a Godsend.

Here I ago agin...........read all about it before you start, on this site it is noted it can cause MS, and aso MS symptoms. Husband has the latter. He used it for 6 weeks, not since January 09, muscles were affected, nervous system, needed help walking and dressing and tired all the time. It does seem to help some people and we thought this was going to help him too, but alas, he is still getting over it. Good luck.

Thank you all for sharing- I've had my first dose- no side effects yet- but no bene's we'll see what the future brings. I had surgery last year, and am comming out of remission, in spite of Pentasa- tehn Sulfazaline- I'm NOT going back on Pred (famous final words)... starting at one shot every other week... my rhuematologist is actually prescribing it, not my GI- I have Crohn's arthritis- it flairs before my gut! Did/do any of you get hotflashes the first few days after you inject? that and a bruise are all I've had so far...

Pat's neurologist read about humira online when we were in his office. He was shocked with the potential side effects, hence our reason for the appointment. Pat had an MRI months ago, should have had another in August but they messed up the appointment and now goes in January. Good to have it to check lesions in the head.
Scarey, I hope it works for you.

I've never had hotflashes with the Humira...just the Prednisone. Mostly hotflashes in the night real bad.

And I think in the last few years I have only had like 2 injection sites bruise on me real bad. It really doesn't bother me to give myself a shot every week, and I don't have to use ice packs or anything for the sting...guess I am a tough old bird.