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Ulcerative Colitis and Humira

Background:

I have been diagnosed with UC in June of 2010 during a business trip to India. I had a great experience there and was treated in a very good hospital to stabilize me enough to fly back to the states. Since then I just had another bad 4 week flare up, in conjunction with enteropathic arthritis, which pretty much immobilized me for the entire time.

Medications:

In order to get the ulcerative colitis and arthrithis under control, I am taking 4.8g of Lialda per day. I used to take 40mg of Prednisone, but it lost its effectiveness after 6 months and my Rheumatologist switched me to 32mg of Medrol per day. In order to fight the Arthrithis I am currently taking 1000mg of Limbrel which makes a huge difference on my pain level. Over the last 5 days my flare up seem to slow doen and I have 4-6 hour windows in between movements.

Current Situation:

As this is the second outbreak within 6 months and the arthritis problems never go completely away, my Rheumatologist recommended to go on Humira, which was approved by the insurance yesterday and I will start my treatment today, hoping that I can start my normal life again. I will keep everybody posted on the impact this drug will have.

***UPDATE FROM December 23rd Below ***

Hey Adam,
I started my first 4 Humira injections on Tuesday night and I have to say it was nothing like I read in other blogs. You can hardly feel the needle, if at all, and I had no burning sensation or bruising on the injection site at all.
Right now I am completely pain free and I can get up, walk, work, do all the things I wasn’t able to do for the last 4 weeks. My Christmas is already here and I do not need any more presents. Being able to move and do things is all I wanted. I talked to my Gastro guy yesterday and he proposed to put me on Imuran to get me off the Medrol quicker, but after reading the side effects, I will stick with the Medrol for a little longer and slowly decrease the dose myself once the Humira takes over for my UC issues,
Now it is just a waiting game again for the Humira to be fully effective. I will have my next 2 injections on 1/4 and then get 40mg every other week. I can’t wait to get rid of all the other medications and hopefully get the UC in remission to have somthing else but white food again.
I would love to here from other people with a UC/Enteropathic Arthritis connection to see how they are doing on Humira.

Adam, feel free to add these comments to my initial post.

Update December 29th, News Gets Even Better:

Just wanted to send you a quick update for my blog.

Had some very good days with movements stretching out from 4-5 hours to a 9 hour stretch today. I am still taking 4.8g of Lialda and 3.2nd of Medrol, but only have very little blood if any at all. The arthritis is almost completely gone and I have started to build up some of the lost muscle mass by starting some light workout exercises.
Regarding my diet I am eating steak and potatoes for dinner, had some chopped sirloin with mashed potatoes for lunch and normally have some bagels with honey and peppermint tea.
Other days I have pasta, chicken and rice. I also eat Activia yoghurt, home made jello and Danish butter cookies. It seems that the hardier I eat the better my movements get.
I have my next 2 shots of Humira due next Tuesday and really know that it made already all the difference for my arthritis. Still have some issues sleeping all through the night, as I seem to het up every 3-4 hours, but now I can do it at least painless.