Chapter 25: Humira

On Tuesday a home health nurse came and taught me how to give myself injections. Four the first time, two the second, and then one shot every other week after that. One in each leg and both sides of my stomach. They definitely stung, but they were not awful.  A new chapter begins....praying for remission!  All along while we waited and waited for the next treatment plan, my specific prayer was that I would begin my next drug before I went off of prednisone. Steroids are generally used to get you symptom-free (and hopefully into remission), and drugs like Remicade and Humira generally KEEP you in remission, so I knew it was important to quickly begin a new treatment so that there was no gap between when I quit steroids and when I began Humira.  Well, the day of my injections was my LAST day of prednisone.  God's timing is amazing isn't it! So, I am definitely always a bit nervous not being on steroids because they always help my symptoms so much, but I am BEYOND thankful to be off of them.  I am sleeping like a ROCK again and my body is really trying to play catch up on almost three loooooooong months of lack of sleep.

We leave for Mayo on Tuesday. I have lots of questions for my GI doctor....about future meds, fertility, surgery, what the future holds as far as a timeline goes. (I will also see a doctor for my other autoimmune disease--primary sclerosing cholangitis--which causes my liver to prematurely scar). I want to ask my doctor about the severity of the disease, treatments, and future prognosis and trajectory. My mom will also have her annual mammogram and physical with her doctor there, and we are obviously praying for her to continue to be cancer-free!!!!

Please join us in praying for:
-good sleep...my body is trying to play catch up!
-Humira to keep me in remission

-safe travels

-productive appointments
-peace IF they have me do a flex sig or a colonoscopy (ugh!!)

-that we leave with a clear plan of action and wisdom moving forward with a bit more understanding of what we will do in the future if Humira doesn't work (i.e future treatment, discuss surgery, etc)
-no cancer on my mom's scan!!!!!

Thank you all sooo much!! ❤️