My Humira Diary: Month 4

Editor's Note: Response to treatments are different for every person. Please discuss any concerns about medications with your healthcare professional.

For the last few months, I have been keeping a diary of my Humira experiences. (You can read months 1, 2, and 3 here.) And now we have reached month four!

Rather than divide these into weeks, I thought I'd just give a general update as luckily things aren't changing that much week to week now.

Injecting Humira

I feel as if I'm a real pro at injecting Humira now and have gotten it down to a fine art!

I know it can be daunting at first, but it really is straightforward enough to get the hang of. I feel really confident injecting myself now and seem to have got the pressure just right to where it doesn't seem to leave any bruising.

My symptoms

Since month 3, I started finally feeling better and am so pleased to say that's continued.

I am really surprised that I keep having completely normal bowel movements every day because I can't remember the last time that happened! I feel really well and have been using it as an opportunity to start eating better.

I seem to be tolerating more fruit and vegetables, too, and managed a banana and spinach smoothie for breakfast without any consequences which I was very surprised about! There is always a fear of 'will this last?' but I am really happy to be feeling well for the moment.

I have also started adding a probiotic to my supplement routine, too. The only symptom I sometimes have is acid reflux, but I am not sure if that's connected to my Crohn's.

My tests

We had a blip in the road when my blood tests showed my white blood cell count was a little low, but it's now returned to normal levels. The next step is to do a fecal calprotectin test.

I find the results of my stool test quite sporadic and not necessarily matching my disease activity. (I had two normal ones before a pill cam showed inflammation in my ileum.)

I would ideally like to redo the pill cam as soon as possible since this seems to be the only reliable test for my Crohn's, but I've been told I need to wait around a year after starting Humira for this for it to make a difference.

It's frustrating, as my blood tests rarely show if I'm flaring so I am really having to rely on symptoms to know what's going on, which isn't always very reliable and does put a little bit of pressure on me. However, for now, I am just trying to enjoy feeling healthy.

My verdict

I was quite pessimistic about the chances of Humira injections working for me, given that I noticed no improvements until the 3rd month. But it seems it just took me a little bit longer than some to notice a difference.

I'm really glad I tried it and I am really happy with the results for now. Hopefully, things won't change too much in the near future, so this will be my last Humira update for now. I hope they have been useful for anyone considering starting the drug.