Re: Humira and worsening Psoriasis?

[Guest guest]

Dear and Amber,

I¹m situation that isn¹t totally similar to yours, but I had the same

reaction with Arava. It took about 30% of my arthritis pain away and at the

time, that was a huge relief for me since we hadn¹t found anything that

worked before I tried Arava. My skin went totally crazy. So far I¹ve been

on Arava for 7 years and my skin still itches like mad when I take Arava

every day. The itching is bad, but so far that¹s all I¹ve had to deal with

and it¹s also a side effect if you are allergic to the medication, so I¹m

learned to take Benedryl when the itching is out of control and use anti

itch lotion like mad.

After 7 years, the Arava doesn¹t work as well as it used too which seems to

be the natural course of a lot of these drugs. I¹m getting ready to try

Simponi even though I have had horrible results with all the biologics in

the past. I¹m also starting prolia (probably spelled wrong) for my

osteoarthritis. Once I hopefully survive that injection I start on Simponi

right after. I also worry because I¹m already low on my auto immune scores

and I¹m only going to be adding drugs that lower it, but the idea is to

lower the prednisone I use every day.

Back to your daughter....I don¹t think there is anything worse than worrying

about our children and their health. My daughter has been ill since she has

been 14 and recently is recovering from a stroke she had last year at the

age of 26. She will do about anything to have a ³normal² life and I

imagine your daughter feels the same way. At 16, everyone wants to be the

same and not stick out in any negative way. I think she should discuss it

with her doctor just because it¹ s a bad precedent to start off hiding

thigns from them. Tell her that any side effect needs to be told to the

doctor to avoid a really serious situation down the line. He might not take

her off Humira as long as her psoriasis doesn¹t get too extreme. It might

also be a side effect that has more consequences than anyone knows, but the

doctor. As hard as our doctors are to get information from, we need to give

them as much as we can about any of the medications they put us on.

Unfortunately PA is a long disease and having a good open relationship with

your doctor is the only way to go. That¹s my two cents anyway. I hope she

does better and I pray PA doesn¹t give her a really hard time. I¹ve known

some people who only have a mild case and lets hope that¹s all she has to

deal with. Good luck and I hope things go well for both of you.

Take care,

Fran in Florida