Hi Poppy,
I take humira too, for over 2 years now, and it has made a considerable difference to me in terms of improved mobility etc. However, in that time I have had two or three flare-ups, mostly affecting shoulder and jaw. Each time this happened, my rheumy gave me a steroid injection & in the case of my shoulder, drained it too. As my bloods were still relatively good, she was happy to keep me on humira. I have a DAS score done roughly every six months, and we have found that normally, my finger & hand joints, knees, don`t show much swelling, even though my bloods sometimes say differently, ie my ESR is always around the 40 mark, but this is actually GOOD for me. Once when my bloods were raised, my rheumy thought about stopping humira, & going onto rituximab, but when the bloods were repeated she decided it had just been a blip, & to stay on humira.
The point I`m trying to make, - in a very roundabout way, sorry, - is that you need a proper discussion with your rheumy, so that everything that`s relevant can be discussed. I think my rheumy would be doing another DAS score a bit later, to check if things had improved. Part of the trouble is, if they decide humira isn`t working, they like to get you off it as it`s such an expensive drug, but this all needs to be talked over properly with your consultant. If you are happ that humira is helping you, make that point as strongly as you can, and ask if you can wait a bit longer, then repeat bloods & DAS score.
Hope this helps - sorry it`s a bit long-winded.
Let us know how you get on, & if you have more questions feel free to pm me.
Kathleen x
