Humira day 1.5

I'm feeling a bit fearless today because I jabbed myself with 4 needles last night. What could be worse than UC and 4 needles?? lol :)

good thing, because today is nutso. I can't believe it's only Thursday. I can't wait for this weekend. Maybe the Panthers will even remember to RUN THE BALL and win a game this sunday :) [edit: we can't win, but we can't lose either... i can't believe we have a bye week so early.... gonna be a long season]

today started inauspiciously enough. i endured a half hour of port-lucie level abdominal agony, then got out of the way so hubs could get ready for work. i tried to then eat some cheerios, but there was some buggy looking thing floating in the bowl, so I dumped it (i had already eaten half, why does this always happen!??!). I never found where the other cat was hiding, usually she follows me around all morning. I meant to check under the bed before I left, but forgot, so now i'm at work fretting. i'm sure she's fine -- she was probably up with me all night and decided to sleep in. i had freaky ass nightmares all night. something vague and frightening was coming for me in the dark, and I wanted to hide, but could not close my eyes. when i did, my body shook because cancer was seeping into me and taking over. so being out in the open meant dark things attacking me from the outside, but hiding for protection gave me cancer... fun fun fun. plus the usual nightsweats. gah!

so i eventually felt well enough to actually leave the house, snarfed an anaspazz on the drive, and just gripped the wheel, telling myself i would be all good in 15 minutes. i can survive anything for 15 minutes, right?

HUMIRA thoughts: my guts are a bit noisier than i'd expect after a loading dose, but I'm used to Remi infusions. my whole left side feels carbonated, but that could also be due to me eating everything in sight yesterday. naughty naughty :)

the injections weren't so bad; the pens are way easier to use than needles and syringes, but I have a bit of control freak in me so it was hard to just push the button. i was so afraid I was gonna miss or something. i stood there with the pen pressed to my belly, and envisioned being on a speedball field and hearing the ref say "GO! GO! GO!", then pushed the button.

with my 4 pen pricks and my navel ring, I feel like a star-bellied sneech :) i almost never do injections in my abdomen -- when i did allergy shots I tried a few times and itched like mad, so I stuck to thigh injections. I will probably still do the procrit in my thighs too, but hopefully that'll only be for 2 more weeks. pred has apparently stopped the bleeding, so I can actually rebuild my red blood cells now, yay! i just need to verify it with the next blood test, but I feel optimistic.

the pen injection was over really quickly - little pinch from the actual needle, followed by a little burn from the Humira itself, gone in a few seconds. more painful than an regular shot, but less painful than procrit. and today, there's no bumps, welts, or discoloration. just the little dot where the skin was pierced. nice. all told, probably took me 30 minutes to administer the dose, and most of that was fretting and being overly careful with everything. oh yeah, and finding out that the pens can't fit in the hole in my sharps container, lol! I hope I get the one from myhumira soon. I put them in a temporary safe place for now, but I don't like to leave needley stuff laying about. and taking the lid off the sharps container probably defeats the purpose.

as far as side effects, or any effects, I think it's too early to tell. I've heard it can take a month for Humira to make its presence known, but I don't know if that means for RA or Crohns, and I have no idea how many UC users there may be. but definitely easier than Remi, and no benadryl involved. Also, I realized I probably can't get that flu shot this weekend either, so that's a needle for another day. Next Humira dose is in 2 weeks, 2 shots. Then every other week, 1 shot. Not a bad deal. Wish the Remi had worked, but at least there is something else for me to try. Here's hoping!