I’ve been taking this Biologic for about six months now alongside high dose methotrexate injections which I have had for a couple of years. Since starting Biologic I have a sticky blocked nose and frequently blood in tissues when I blow my nose. My husband says I’m snoring really loudly and he has to sleep in spare bedroom. Could this be the Biologic that’s causing this?
Thanks everyone
Possibly, I’ve been on biologics since 2008 and after starting them I began having a stuffy nose every morning and developed hayfever and allergies. I take a daily prescribed antihistamine to help with it. However, I’ve never had the nose bleeds or snoring but I did start snoring after I had COVID in September which has since settled down. It would be worth speaking to your rheumatology team to find out if this is something they have heard of. X
I have this with methotrexate
The problem with excess nasal (and post-nasal) catarrh is the only problem that I've had with adalimumab - otherwise I'm over the moon with how much improvement there has been with the Rheumatoid Arthritis symptoms (not unfortunately with my other problems...).
It's important that you don't just put it down to side effects, though. Having inflammation of the nasal passages might be due to infection (needs a swab - you might need some Naseptin cream for that), or allergy (might respond to sodium cromoglicate, antihistamines or steroid spray?). or it might be due to drying out of the nasal passages. I've also on one occasion developed thrush in my nose as well as my mouth.
I've found that using a saline nasal wash twice a day washing out most of the excess mucus followed by an application of cream, calms down the lining so that it doesn't block up or bleed so easily.
I've kept my eye on this post today! I started Humira at the end of July 2021. There were various annoying side effects for a few weeks but things then settled to leave a very stuffy nose with instances of sinus pain. In the end I went down the NeilMed sinus rinse line and persevered with that for quite some months. I was gradually able to gently reduce usage and stop. I was left with stuffy passages/sinuses at some point after each injection - quite when it started varied (day 4 - day 8) and it lasted 3 or 4 days but was manageable and always cleared up.
Nose bleeds - I've always been prone to them and they are more frequent on Humira for me, I think linked to the fact that it does seem to 'dry me out' (central heating doesn't help so we keep ours low and I wrap up, bearing in mind the Raynaud's, interesting balance 😂) and my eyes and mouth are particularly dry when the sinuses are stuffy. I am verging on Sjogren's but not quite there, they test every so often to check.
Unfortunately I was moved to Idacio (biosmilar) last January and had a massive reaction. I don't do well with a change in meds (which is why the Rheumy would rather stick with Humira as it's doing more than MTX did, quite how the swap to Idacio slipped through I don't know!), some generics give me real issues so we tend to stay with a brand once we know it works. I restarted Humira late last March but have been battling sinus issues ever since.
I'm back on the sinus rinse 🙈 and will raise it again when I see my Rheumy this week. He has said in the past that sinus issues aren't something he's heard of with Humira. However, it's definitely come up on here before now.
Just to make you smile, I found the nose bleed situation particularly trying when I had to LFT each time i went to see my Mum in a care home. Sometimes I was there several times a week and trying to work out which nostril had bled most recently to avoid . . . I'm stuffed now that I only seem to be able to get the type you only use in your nose. At least the 'original' tests with needed throat and nose gave me a 50% chance of being able to test!!
Do chat to your GP and Rheumy though. As oldtimer2 says, it could be something that they could 'solve' for you. Let me know if you have any huge breakthroughs.
I had similar while on a biologic, along with blepharitis which was more difficult to deal with day to day. My eyeslids became puffy, sore and often scabby. Both cleared up when I stopped.
I stopped as I didn't feel it was effective, though looking back it was probably helping more than I gave it credit for at the time.
Hoping for better luck with a JAK inhibitor in the coming weeks.
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