Very interesting. I had to stop Enbrel because of breathing trouble and now having the same thing with Orencia. Glad I am not alone in this. I started having symptoms of heart failure shortly after starting enbrel. Finally had to quit.

gryd1963,. What was the outcome of your shortness of breath? Was it caused from humira? How long did it take for it to resolve? Hope you're feeling much better now!

I'm glad this post got pulled up, as my breathing is horrific right now. I gasp for breath if I raise my arm, or walk across the floor. I see last year in April, I posted that I felt my breathing was impaired by Orencia, but not as bad as Rituxan had been.

Well, it is worse now, than Rituxan was. Plus I started coughing up blood, which has never happened to me before. There is no doubt in my mind. Well, I do hope the provincial insurance will let me go back on Kineret, which I had no side effects, except injection site reactions the first year.

Hi everybody - thank you for finding this post. I wound up having to use compression stockings to drain the excess fluid from my legs and abdomen from the heart failure. I came off of humira but the heart failure is still with me - Humira was started in 2007 or 2008. RA can also cause obstructive sleep apnea but if you use your cpap machine and compression stockings you will be able to breathe better and get rid of the excess fluid from your body and have a better quality of life but it takes time and patience. stay on your meds and keep reaching for better days - they are headed our way for sure!

gryd1963 you sound like me. I'm 52 with highly aggressive RA mild bilateral emphysema and a few other comorbidities related to my long term use prednisone. Methotrexate stopped working so I went down the road of the Biologics. I remember my first Humira injection and the mild burning sensation in my sinus and lungs. Eventually that developed in to Shortness of Breath. I stopped Humira after the 4th injection and I continue to have the feeling of shortness of breath. I had a CT done before I started Humira and I am about to get my followup results post Humira. If your an ex smoker the VA does a CT on you at 50 plus. I have very little doubt that Humira exacerbated by mild Emphysema into something I definitely notice and have to deal with daily now. I will come back sometime next week and post again after my CT results come in and tell you what they say. Stay hydrated with water, it helps the lung mucosa and stiff air sacks. I never had any problems breathing until I used Humira.

Rodwick, what does a pulmonologist say?

I saw a Pulmonologist during my first ER visit for SOB 4 weeks post Humira treatment. I was having so much trouble breathing I had to go to the ER. Of course they put me on the cardiology floor and we went that route but I kept telling them its trouble breathing so they brought the Pulmonologist into the mix. He order a CT of lungs, pulmonary function test, etc. He said I was fine and saw no problems in my CT. I blew him off after that because I had already been diagnosed with mild bilateral emphysema and had three 8 cm nodules in my upper left lobe that were being monitored by the VA. I've been an RN for 23 years so his failure to notice these pulmonary issues caused a complete loss of confidence in his abilities. However he did mention one thing new, that I had some scar tissue mid sternum left lung. That made me scratch my head because that's where the burning sensation started during my Humira treatment. They also did a Cardiac stress test on me and said I failed it so I started thinking okay maybe I do have a heart condition. Anyway two weeks later I was back in the ER for the same complaint different location. I showed them the Failed stress test result so they Cardiac Cath'd me and did Electrophoresis. The cardiologist plumber said I had minimal plaque and a great heart muscle, the Cardiac electrician said I was rock solid also. That pretty much isolated it back to being Reactive Airway disease. I got the preliminary results for my followup CT at the VA today, nothing new same as the last one and no mention of scar tissue. I will get the final result on the followup CT sometime next week.

I would've fire the pulmo-doc, too.......assuming the earlier Dx of bilateral emphysema came from another pulmo-doc.

Reactive Airway.....well, here's the thing [and I'm certainly no expert here] wouldn't you think that if it was Humira that was causing it that it would not be isolated to one spot?

Will be interesting to see what the CT shows.

I have chronic bronchitis and presumably emphysema but these show up in my PFT's. [I've been on Humira for about 8-10 years now.]

don't you love your pulmonologist? i feel for you all that have lung crap, since I have lung crap also. kind of like a layered salad starting with very premature birth and recurrent pneumonia as a child adding acetalactisis, and then bronchiectasis up to today. it's a toss up which pisses me off more in terms of meeting the challenges head on: the breathing or the joints. it's good you are so aware of the results of your diagnostic imaging. do you keep tabs on your pulmonology function tests also like where they have been and where they are now? do you get a lot of lung infections? The rituxan infusion knocked me onto the highway to hell (rip) with one of the worse lung infections ever followed by esophageal fungus from the lung inhalers (have you had that one yet - it's fun, not). I'm all passed that and t r y i n g to block out the memory since rituxan comes again in March. Somedays when my lungs are worse than ever I don't even feel like treating the RA but on days when my lungs are stronger than weaker I want to keep fighting the RA. what a choice.

hugs to all the fellow lung and ra travelers.