I was diagnosed with Crohn's in June of last year. I finally got the symptoms under control after a round of Prednisone last September. Then I was put on Pentasa (doc said my crohn's looked mild and we hoped this would be enough to keep it under control) and Prilosec (as the Prednisone had given me heartburn). A few weeks on Pentasa and then my crohn's symptoms started to come around again. I told my doctor that I wanted to try Humira at that time since the Pentasa wasn't working and I was getting sick of being sick. While I was waiting for Humira to get started I started a round of Entocort to try to keep my symptoms under control until I could start Humira. Then at the end of October I woke up one morning with extreme lower back pain... so bad I had to call into work. The severity of the pain went down after the first week but stayed significant and just kept lingering and lingering. The pain also then began to spread to my mid-back and to my shoulders. My girlfriend told me that she thought it was being caused by all the drugs I was on but I didn't really quite believe her until I stopped the pentasa, prilosec, and tapered entocort down to 1 pill a day (instead of 3). This takes us to November. I was starting to think my girlfriend was right and the drugs were causing my pain because my back pain was almost completely gone for 4 days when I was off almost all the drugs. Then I took my first Humira injection and 2 days after the injection the pain all came back.
I've now been on Humira for almost 2 months. In that period the back pain seems wane, sometimes it has even gone away completely, until I take my injection and then a day or two after that it comes back like every time.
I've since seen an rheumatologist who tested me for the Ankylosing Spondylitis gene and that came back negative. My rheumatoid factor also came back negative. I've also been tested for the Sjogren's Syndrome antibody and that came back negative. My blood work always comes back normal for just about
every measure they have. My blood work also doesn't even pick up any inflammation outside the normal range.
The only thing that they have found in my blood is that I've started to develop antibodies to Humira. My GI wants to now double the dose of Humira or add another drug to it. But I'm wondering right now if the Humira is causing or at least contributing to my back pain. Right now the crohn's symptoms are almost non-existant. The back pain is by far the biggest thing affecting my life right now. It makes it really hard to concentrate at work when I've just got this nagging pain in my back while I'm sitting at my desk.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Has anyone else experienced back or joint pain that they attribute to Humira? I really, really hope this is not the new normal for me because this back pain really sucks. Any advice would be welcome.
Post Edited (VernalFalls) : 1/10/2018 4:26:53 PM (GMT-7)