I had my first dose of Humira on Tuesday. Lucky for me, Humira is used in both Crohn's Disease and Ankylosing Spondylitis so I get a "two birds with one stone" store of deal. Since it was my initial dose I had to do four injections, then in two weeks I will do two, and then just one injection every two weeks after that.
I had asked for the pre-filled syringes instead of the injections pens since everyone I talked to said that the pens hurt more. When I picked up my prescription I found that they had given me the pens. I didn't want to wait, so I went ahead with the pens. A nurse came to the apartment to train me on the injections and answer any questions I had. I'm glad now that I got the pens instead because it wasn't particularly painful. It did sting a bit but, but in the past I've had a really hard time psyching myself up to stab a needle in my leg. I had to do monthly B-12 injections for awhile and I spent more time prepping myself to actually get the needle in my leg then the actual injection. With the pen I just push the button and the needle pushes itself in a second later.
I read a lot about Humira before I started and the results were different for everyone. Some people had relief within days and for some it took months. I'm not expecting any digestive symptoms to resolve quickly since even if the inflammation is reduced, the gut has to heal.
However, I have noticed a couple of things. The first thing I noticed is the super achiness and tenderness in my lower back is pretty much gone. The pain was pretty much constant, so I didn't even notice at first that it was gone. The second thing is that my morning stiffness has been gone the last two days. It had gotten to a point that it would take over an hour for my back and hips to loosen up in the morning so I could go about my day. This morning when I got up, it was just... easy. I got up and that was it. No groaning, no bending weirdly to pick up stuff. It was pretty exciting!
So far I would say the Humira is starting to work or that I'm experiencing the best placebo effect. I'm looking forward to my other issues disappearing as time goes on. Of course, I'm still going to try and help things along with my diet, exercise, and physical therapy plan. I'm also secretly hoping that the massive reduction in chronic inflammation will help me shed some extra fat. I've read quite a bit that chronic high inflammation in the body makes it difficult to lose weight. I feel like that with how much I have been exercising coupled with my fairly healthy diet I should be losing more fat. I've tried managing the inflammation before with natural anti-inflammatories like turmeric and omega-3's, but I think it was just too much.
I'm super optimistic and hoping that it continues to help!
Edited to add: I forgot to mention that in all of this, my doctor changed my diagnosis from Ulcerative Colitis to Fistulizing Crohn's Disease. Luckily, I haven't had any real small bowel involvement. He just think that the fistula coupled with the AS diagnosis it probably is Crohn's.
I had asked for the pre-filled syringes instead of the injections pens since everyone I talked to said that the pens hurt more. When I picked up my prescription I found that they had given me the pens. I didn't want to wait, so I went ahead with the pens. A nurse came to the apartment to train me on the injections and answer any questions I had. I'm glad now that I got the pens instead because it wasn't particularly painful. It did sting a bit but, but in the past I've had a really hard time psyching myself up to stab a needle in my leg. I had to do monthly B-12 injections for awhile and I spent more time prepping myself to actually get the needle in my leg then the actual injection. With the pen I just push the button and the needle pushes itself in a second later.
I read a lot about Humira before I started and the results were different for everyone. Some people had relief within days and for some it took months. I'm not expecting any digestive symptoms to resolve quickly since even if the inflammation is reduced, the gut has to heal.
However, I have noticed a couple of things. The first thing I noticed is the super achiness and tenderness in my lower back is pretty much gone. The pain was pretty much constant, so I didn't even notice at first that it was gone. The second thing is that my morning stiffness has been gone the last two days. It had gotten to a point that it would take over an hour for my back and hips to loosen up in the morning so I could go about my day. This morning when I got up, it was just... easy. I got up and that was it. No groaning, no bending weirdly to pick up stuff. It was pretty exciting!
So far I would say the Humira is starting to work or that I'm experiencing the best placebo effect. I'm looking forward to my other issues disappearing as time goes on. Of course, I'm still going to try and help things along with my diet, exercise, and physical therapy plan. I'm also secretly hoping that the massive reduction in chronic inflammation will help me shed some extra fat. I've read quite a bit that chronic high inflammation in the body makes it difficult to lose weight. I feel like that with how much I have been exercising coupled with my fairly healthy diet I should be losing more fat. I've tried managing the inflammation before with natural anti-inflammatories like turmeric and omega-3's, but I think it was just too much.
I'm super optimistic and hoping that it continues to help!
Edited to add: I forgot to mention that in all of this, my doctor changed my diagnosis from Ulcerative Colitis to Fistulizing Crohn's Disease. Luckily, I haven't had any real small bowel involvement. He just think that the fistula coupled with the AS diagnosis it probably is Crohn's.
