I have read that Humira is sometimes taken every week for patients with advanced RA. I haven’t read that It is taken that frequently for PSA sufferers. Is anyone with PSA taking Humira more frequently than every two weeks? I seem to have about 7 or 8 days of feeling fairly decent and then it seems to peter out. I’m considering asking my Dr. to put me on a schedule of 40 mg. every week or maybe every ten days to see if I can get more benefit from it. For the past 18 months I seem to have slowly taken a few steps backward in my war against PSA. I failed methotrexate after 3 months, but I might consider giving that a try again with the Humira. Another question I have is this, has anyone failed a biologic and then tried another one and then after failing the second biologic tried going back on the first biologic and had any meaningful benefit? I did pretty well on Enbrel for 12 months and then it seemed to level out with no more improvement. And then I was told that my Rx insurance would no longer cover Enbrel so I switched to Humira last January. I’m running out of options.
Keep a diary! I’m currently keeping one as humira definitely doesn’t last for the two weeks. When I go back to rheumy in march he will consider increasing frequency of doses.
I’ve been injecting Humira every 10 days for three years this month. I had been injecting every 14 days but like you, noticed that I “ran out” of benefits maybe 10 days into it. When I saw him for a regular appointment, I talked to my rheumy about the drop off and asked if I could try injecting every 10 days.
He said he had some patients on an every 7 day schedule and said we could try it. For me, injecting every 10 days doesn’t give the drop off (other than today, 8 days after my last injection, when I’m walking like something rusted in the rain. I think it’s still recovering from surgery six weeks ago and my last dose only being the second since then).
When we were talking last year or May of this year (I can’t remember), the rheumy said if I noticed the same steep drop-off, we would try an every 7 day schedule. Insurance hasn’t given us any guff…so far.
I have been on a 10 day regimin for almost 8 months now. I deffinately saw benifits but loke you not for the whole 2 weeks and my rheumy was willing to try the 10 day cycle but she was adament to only allow it for 2 months and considered adding something to the mix. I am unable to tolerat mtx and allergic to sulfa so the drug she offered ( forget the name some antirejection drug for organ transplant patients?) was one no one else even heard of and the long term side effects were horrendous. Long story short, not every day is sunshine by any means but it has worked well. She said every patient prior had always become severly sick past 2 months but I can honestly say I have only had one cold the entire time. Enbrel never did me any good so I hated the idea of giving up on Humira until it was obviouly not working at all. I will take less effective over going back to the gap again any day.
If you have any P anywhere, make sure it is charted. The dosing for P is different than arthritis. The protocol for P is weekly. makes things MUCH easier with insurance companies…
Thank you all for the encouraging remarks. It sounds like it shouldn’t be to hard for my insurance to make a decision. Hopefully in my favor. tntlamb I have not had any problems with P for several years, the only P problem I have is when my bladder leaks!!
I’ve been on weekly Humira for over a year. I went from 2 weeks to 10 days to a week over the course of a year. The initial increase to 10 days and then to a week was a HUGE boost and my insurance didn’t bat an eyelid. I added Otezla (DMARD) and Meloxicam (NSAID) to the mix in the last 6 months because even the weekly dose of Humira didn’t seem to be enough for my symptoms and I was backsliding. Those two in combo held the course for a while but more recently I’ve hit a wall and it’s clear that even the weekly dose is now no longer cutting it for me. I’m about to switch over to Simponi.
You may want to think about whether its time to add something else to help (maybe you already have?). And do talk to your doc about when or whether a biologic switch might be needed. Good luck, Alaska!