Hello, I was on Humira for over 5 years and it worked great. 6 months ago, it slowly lost its power and I am now on remicade. My questions is, has anyone became immune to humira or any other psa drug and returned to it with positive results? If so, How long were you away from it? I know everyone is different but just wanted to take a pole.
Thanks.
Yes, the best meds for me, besides prednisone, is Remacaid, however I began having reactions to it, I was on it for 5 years and it started really shutting me down, sleeping up to 14 hours in a day and it slowly turned to 4 days out of the week like this, I didn't even want to wake up. I also began having tightness i both my legs and arms, it was so strange, from my knees to my ankles on both legs the back would feel tight and a pulling feeling almost like they were asleep without the tingling, it was tighness instead and very uncomfortable, it also happened in my arms elbows to wrists, and that feeling was like you hit your funny bone with the tightness too. So, I went off of it for almost a year and began methotrexate injections again, the max I am allowed to get and also prednisone, the methotrexate was making me ill as well, it was too strong at that amount, which at the moment I can't remember the exact dosage, but I felt no energy with this either, and felt nauseated a lot and was sleeping a lot too. so fatigued! I had to be taken off of that eventually too, I returned to the Remaciad 500mg by I.V. and she gives me benedryl before each I.V. and that seems to have done the trick with my leg/arm reactions. (so strange) I am quite tired still and am finding I'm sleeping a lot more and this really just started a year or two ago on and off. but for now, It is keeping me somewhat stable with my flares, no more tightness or numbness but still a bit fatigued most of the time. :(
This is fairly common with biologics. When I first started on Enbrel 11 yrs ago, it put me in a complete remission (as long as I kept taking it). No pain, no fatigue, like I didn't even have PsA. After 2.5 yrs it slowly stopped working. None of the other biologics put me in remission again. Simponi worked for me somewhat for about a year, most of the others did nothing. I went back to Enbrel a few times as it at least did SOMETHING.
So does the enbrel work half as good now as it did on its best day back then? Humira was the same for me. I was bulletproof. I think that is whats rough on me mentally. I felt sooooooo good I forgot what I had. At the time, that was a good thing but now that I got a taste of what it felt to be normal, I miss it so much it hurts.
Enbrel works for me about 1/3 to 1/2 of what it did at first. Much better than nothing, but WAY less than I'd like. I know what you mean about getting a taste of life and then going back to feeling sucky.