Here Goes Nothing

As the Azathioprine was such as disaster, I need to find something else that will help me get into remission and get me off the bloody insanity-inducing Prednisolone.

Today saw the start of a new medication regime -

Humira is part of a group of drugs known as “biologics”. They are very science fiction and are made out of proteins. It is meant to target the very specific part of the immune system involved in Crohn’s Disease and other auto-immune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis. Humira is apparently made of human proteins. There is another one called Remicade which needs to be given in hospital which is apparently half mouse!

Of course, they don't say what kind of mouse . . .

 (The drug company doesn’t advertise that, but several nurses have confirmed that this is the case). Finding that out explained the “rat crack” comments I have seen on several Crohn’s related web forums.

My understanding about these drugs is that if they work, they work well. But they don’t always work. And like anything, they have side effects. As they are fairly new, it’s hard to say what the long term impact of taking these drugs will be. And it will take a while to know whether or not it works.

I have to inject this drug, and I had a lovely health visitor come over today to oversee me giving myself the first two injections. The poor thing arrived to me in one of my full blown Pred induced anxiety attacks and was absolutely lovely about it and kept assuring me that I am not the first patient she has had who was like this on Prednisolone.

From http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/ - which is great for Pred related comics

The thing is, I wasn’t nervous about giving myself a needle, I was like that because I dropped the amount of Prednisolone that I’m taking on Friday and my brain hasn’t forgiven me yet! Hopefully I will be slightly more sane when she arrives to oversee the next two tomorrow. After that injection, I take it myself every fortnight.

All I can say about the injections themselves is “Ow!”

I was warned that it might make me feel a bit rough, and that has certainly been the case, so I have been spending the day with costume dramas and being really glad that I made food last night that I could just re-heat today.

Here’s hoping it works . . . .