I am a week and a half into Humira. The things I have noticed are: 1) the feeling of improvement stayed for a few days but has since gone back to how I was before the shot - I am not giving up, I know it takes a while to get into the system. 2) With the feeling better comes extra tiredness. Since feeling better, I tried to do too much and ended up really tired. 3) I have a larger appetite yet seem to be smaller - I think the moving around has used more energy than I expected and resulted in my appetite returning. 4) Meds did nothing for allergies - not that I expected it to - still feeling the spring/summer allergies.
The true test will be when we go to Michigan in a couple weeks. Going to see my family and see some friends but I am driving so I have to keep things in check. We haven't been up there in quite a while so we need to go but I am concerned that I am going to tire myself out. This summer is about shot - I can't believe I will be back in school in just over 3 weeks! Just don't have the energy to do much more but feeling like I have missed out.
Is humira your first biologic? I hope it starts working better for you. I hope your trip is fun and not painful. I'm starting my first biologic tomorrow and I'm also going on a weeklong drive to Cleveland from MN beginning Saturday. It is a concern of mine, too, that the drive will cause so much pain and stiffness. I hope we both have good results to report when we get back!
Hi Diva!
my experience starting Humira was that I experienced improvement much more slowly than with Enbrel (which seemed almost instantaneous). I knew I was feeling better each time I took my Humira but in the first six months it was very slow and incremental. So slow that I felt like giving up. Then all of a sudden I realized that my energy level was pretty much back to normal and I felt lively enough to do all kinds of things I haven't done in a couple of years (running, racquetball, walking more than a mile). I do still experience swelling and joint tenderness but nothing like I had pre-biologics. Wishing you continued improvement. ~Jane
I have found that with the biologics I will feel better but it takes months on them for me to be better. I still need lots of breaks and lots of down time but I do have more energy and ability to do things but though at times I feel like my old self I am not. At east not 100%.