I had a week of no pain and little swelling. I had just started humira and a new anti inflammatory. I was so excited thinking I was going into remission. Yesterday I woke up and all the pain and swelling was back…
It’s such a bummer, isn’t it? But it doesn’t mean that the Humira and the new anti-inflammatory isn’t working. The Humira takes weeks to have an effect. Your good week most likely had nothing to do with Humira, it would have happened drugs or no drugs.
That’s the frustrating part of this disease: improvements happen slowly, and unevenly. Over the long term, though (3-4 months) you will know what works for you.
Chin up, the game’s not over yet. If you can, take the weekend to do all the things that make you feel a bit better: rest, ice or heat, a relaxing bath. Even venting right here!
Let us know how you’re doing
Or the other possibility is the Humira is working perfectly. It takes four cycles of any medication to maintain its half life levels in you body (that why they use loading doses with remicade) if its a NSAID you take once a day it take 4 days to get CONSISTENT blood levels. twice day two days. Humira 8 weeks before it can even begin to have consistent results.
Stardy, I'm not surprised. That's exactly what happened with Humira and the PPP on my hands. The Humira has to build up in your system. You can speed the build up by taking your doses quicker more often in the beginning. Ask your rheum for a loading dose, then you can take it once a week for a few weeks. Also you can usually get your next shipment 3 weeks and 1 day after your last shipment, so you can increase dose frequency that way.
Of course discuss this with your rheum before you do any of it, but I'm giving you the advice from my derm. Really the Humira will likely take up to 3 months to get to full strength in your system unless you push it faster. Another option your rheum has is to give you low dose MTX if you're not on it already. The MTX helps the Humira last longer in your body.
So don't worry, be happy, but get the problem fixed.
Be patient! A week is great news! It’s progress. Most of the meds do take a while to build up in your system to work for a longer period of time. The really good thing for you right now is that it did work. That means there is hope that you are on the right medication for you.
It is really hard to have a good week and then wake up sore. It’s like running into a wall and it can be so frustrating. But learn to take the good days as they come and enjoy them while you have them. I don’t want to tell you to not be hopeful, because you should definitely hold on to your hope. Simply take each good day as that, one good day. If you wake up the next and you have pain or fatigue, you can remember that you have had good days and you will have more.
This disease is nothing if not frustrating and disappointing. I can be so hard to keep your chin up. You will always have support here when you need it.
Please don’t feel you are going back as like everyone has said it takes time to build up in you system .i think it lasted a week the first time I took it and every jab after that it lasted longer.so chin and hope it will in time work well for you .I remember counting down the days to my next jab.but believe it or not I forgot to it on the day I should have taken it as I was feeling so good.this psa plays so many tricks with our mind and body.so we are now on a permanent rollacoaster taking the ups with the downs.hope you feel better soon and have more ups than downs.
The same thing happened to me and I am/was so disappointed. My dr just added mtx back along with the Enbrel. But I know EXACTLY how you feel. Then after six weeks I was nearly pain free and going to the gym several times a week. It was my daughter’s hs graduation and I was on my feet a LOT and ended up with a terrible flare. I am still paying the price of overdoing it. Hang in there. My dr said you see improvements for up to 3 months. Talk to your rheumy, though, bc mine was quick to add the mtx back. I hope yours is as wonderful as mine… A great listener, knowledgable, and caring. I am so blessed! I love the support you get from friends on here, too. Who knows what normal is with PsA? We have to figure it out as we go. One thing I admire about my rheumatologist is that he said when he retires he wants to work to increase public awareness of this disease bc it just isn’t there.
I find sometimes when I'm feeling good that I tend to do more than I should. It's taken a long time to learn how to listen to my body and know when it's time to stop. It's not an easy thing, as we always want to be able to do more, but sometimes that just makes us worse.
Give the Humira time, as everyone else has said, it takes time for it to work.
I wish you all the best with it.
Terri_d that is my biggest problem! I am my own worst enemy. You’re so right it takes lots of practice to learn to listen to your body. And sometimes the hardest part is putting your (swollen) foot down and saying no! I have had to look my sweetheart of a husband in the eyes and say, “I don’t care if you are going to keep on cleaning up this kitchen. I am going to go sit down because I have hit the wall.” He gets it now after seeing me pay he price over and over. Sometimes it’s the other way around and my family forces me to sit and watch them work.
Stardy 
baby steps until you know your limit. The fatigue for me was horrible. Only after months on mtx and plaquinil and finally switching to Enbrel did I see any improvement at all. My rheumy told me this, “I can tell you’re getting worried but I have lots of tricks left in my magic box. We just have to find the combination that works best for you.” So hang in there. Have faith. xox