Happy New Year to all you good peeps! Got a rather strange question to ask the Humira users. Or anyone who might be in the know on such matters
I did my first Humira injection 7 days ago. No problems at all. Now I know it’s WAY WAY WAY too early to know if it’s doing anything but speaking with my Nurse Ambassador yesterday, when she asked how I was doing, I mentioned that other than a rather significant fever blister and a biggish mouth ulcer on the roof of my mouth that both popped up during the night I was doing just fine. In fact I noticed that my eyes weren’t itching, burning and aching like they have been for ages. But I digress.
This morning I woke with yet another fever blister coming up and the mouth ulcer getting a bit bigger. Now I NEVER have either of these issues and I know that fever blisters are the result of dormant herpes waking up so I’m wondering if the Humira has anything to do with it? I’m not sure I can live with this if it’s going to be an ongoing issue.
Definitely not. Mentioning it to the humira person was a good move. The question is always whether this is a random occurrence that just happened to coincide with starting the medication or what are the medication is causing it. I would definitely have a conversation with your doctor. That’s not something you want to be dealing with.
Also, just so you are aware, there have been lots of times where people have that sort of response to one specific biologic but not to others. So just be aware that trying another biologic is definitely a reasonable option.
I contacted my Nurse Ambassador (NA) as well as left messages w/rheumy and PCP. Yesterday the NA called me back and said Abbvie wants to know anything unusual, however small it may be. So we talked for awhile so that she could do her reporting.
This morning my rheumy replied that it is possible that if I had had HSV in the past the Humira could possibly activate it. So it would be totally reasonable to have my PCP swab it to see if it’s a reoccurrence. But seeing as this is now Saturday I will have to wait till Monday to do anything. Fortunately the ulcer seems to be clearing up and Abreva is drying up the blisters, after a fashion. Hopefully this is a one time occurrence and I’ll acclimate to the new drug. But if not I’ll DEFINITELY have a chat about trying a different biologic.
Since I couldn’t find anything about fever blisters (HSV) and Humira on the site here this conversation may be helpful to someone else.
Thanks Seenie!
I don’t know if yours was HSV (which can occur anywhere on the body, not just lips) or some other rash but I just got back from my dr visit about this. Yup, it’s HSV. Shocker . When he looked up side effects and percentage of users with each he found that activation of HSV occurred in less than 4% of Humira users. Looks like I and maybe you aren’t just blessed with a rare disease but also rare SEs. Oi vey! At least now I have an antiviral prescription in case the next injection causes more of those painful little suckers.
. When he looked up side effects and percentage of users with each he found that activation of HSV occurred in less than 4% of Humira users. Looks like I and maybe you aren’t just blessed with a rare disease but also rare SEs. Oi vey! At least now I have an antiviral prescription in case the next injection causes more of those painful little suckers.