Connect
Humira for AS
Hi there,
I was recently diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis after years of progressive SI and back pain. My doctor wants to put me on Humira but I’m a little wary of starting yet another medication that I’ll have to take for the rest of my life (I’m already on around 12). Especially given that it weakens the immune system. What have y’all’s experiences been taking it? How bad do things need to be before it makes sense to take it?
Like
Helpful
HugInterested in more discussions like this? Go to the Autoimmune Diseases Support Group.
Connect
I took Humira for a few years for psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis and it worked great for me with only one side effect - lowering my body temperature. In my opinion, that was a bonus since I was hot all the time before I started taking it. Now, it can cause problems for many people, however, I was not one of them. I was never sick while taking it and in fact, before taking it, every year I ended up with bronchitis after a cold that would take a few weeks to clear up. While taking Humira, I never had it, which I thought was interesting. I had no other issues with it except that it cooled me down which was great for summer. I did have high inflammation levels before I started it, so perhaps the inflammation was making me hot.
It helped my joints very well almost from the beginning, but took much longer to help my skin. It worked much better when I took a more frequent dose along with methotrexate, but it did help me quite a bit. I had to stop taking it because my pharmacy would no longer pay for it, and since then, I've gone downhill and haven't found anything that helps. I am almost back where I started.