Now what?

Hi-
I was on 7 shots of Humira, and on Butyrate enemas, and seemed to start a remission, then a trip to Australia to visit my son and his family-
27 hours of traveling- seems to have put me in a bad flare!!
Has anyone else tried butyrate enemas? Seems I can't retain them now for some reason.
Had the Prometheus test for Humira- showed that I haven't had the therapeutic level yet, but showed I was developing some antibodies against it.
I am so depressed and don't know where to go from here?
Would really love some advice.....

Thanks for your quick response. I tried
Remicade- had to be admitted to the hospital after one infusion, gave me tachicardia.

Do you take probiotics? You need a very high powered one with probably at least 100 billion CFU's, such as VSL#3.

---

Pentasa (500mg) 2 pills X 2

VSL#3 1 capsule X 2; Prescript Assist Probiotic 1 capsule X 2; Probiotic 3 - 1 capsule; Grape seed extract (1)400mg X 2; Vitamin D3 (1) 5,000 IU X 2; DAO as needed due to dietary histamine intolerance

Gave me trouble: Zymactive, Renew Life Probiotic 80 billion, Florastor, high histamine foods

Therapeutic level: You generally want a medication to reach therapeutic levels within your body, that's the ideal concentration in which the most healing takes place. If you're not in therapeutic levels then it's particularly working but could be more effective, if dosage is increased.

Antibodies: First, let's talk about what Humira is. Humira is a biologically engineered protein that's designed to adhere to a protein that your immune system uses to say "send an attack over here" known as TNF-Alpha. Once the two proteins bind, they both pass harmlessly out of the body, and inflammation is avoided in that one instance. Your immune system develops antibody proteins to anything it conceives to be a threat within your bloodstream. When present, an antibody protein binds with one humira particle, both pass out of the body without humira working. Antibody concentration is a bigger concern, if there's only a small amount of antibodies then it can be countered by flooding your body with more humira. If there's more humira then antibodies then humira still works. Reverse that scenario (more antibodies than humira) and you're screwed, time to try another medication.

---

Moderator ulcerative colitis
John, 37, uc proctosigmoiditis in remission
Rx: Remicade 5mg/kg/8 weeks and 6MP 50mgs/day
Diet mods and supplements didn't help me.
For authenticity, picture my posts spoken with a Boston accent. Drop the final "r" in words: birds of a feathah flock togetha...

The antibodies will not get lower, and might even increase. The idea was that you can keep more Humira than antibodies, you have some chance.

Possibly you can take Imuran or some other immune suppressant to slow down antibody formation.

If you get too many antibodies you will need to try another drug. It does suck that they are so expensive.

---

11/08: ischemic colitis and scope perf colon. 12cm colon/ileocecal resected. IV antib:sepsis.
01/10: Dx: Mod. UC pancolitis. Rx: Lialda 3x.
02/11: Major flare w/antib:sinus. Rx: 40mg Pred taper. 6mp.
07/11: Histol remiss rt/trans; worse sigmoid. Rx: Rowasa & hydrocort
---
Curr: 1-2 soft-formed stool, no urgency: Lialda 2x, NO PRED, probiotics, Vit-D/C