I've heard that us RA patients can have remissions but after 4 years with it, I haven't had one. 1st year did the steroids as needed, then went on to Methotrexate, then onto Humira for the last 2-3. Right now I do the Metho. once a week, Humira every 2 weeks, steroids as needed, Celebrex rarely, pain meds as needed. I have seen improvements after going on the Metho. & Humira, but no total remission where I felt like I did before RA. Is that even a correct idea of remission? Is remission, just better, or is it more like the normal life before RA?
My Dr. seems happy with me being on the Humira & Metho. but seems leary to change me on another Biologic, as if they are more dangerous with side-effects? At this point I figure I'm already taking dangerous meds but am weighing the results of a life with them or being totally miserable without them. But anyway, I'm curious about the people on here, can you chime in to how long you had RA before a remission, did you ever get one, if you did, what were you taking to bring on the remission, was it from a change in meds? I just want to face this realisticly. I don't want to get my hopes up for a remission if it is more of a rare thing, or patients don't tend to get them in the first few years of RA. Thanks for your info.!
Although it is possible to have a spontaneous remission or a remission induced by medication that sticks around after you stop taking the medication, they're rare. When they happen, they can last for months or years, but the RA tends to come back.
RA is a chronic autoimmune disease and for most of us, that means it needs to be treated on a permanent basis in order to be suppressed sufficiently that we can get on with our lives. With medication, it is possible to live a fairly normal life, although you will likely have to continue to make some concessions to your disease, pain levels and fatigue. The good thing about medications is that they keep pain and fatigue levels down, although depending on how long you had the disease and the amount of damage it did before it got under control, pain levels and fatigue can vary.
It sounds to me as if the medications you're on are controlling your disease fairly well and I suspect that's why your doctor doesn't want to change it. There may come a time in the future where your current medications no longer work as well as they do now and that will be the time to discuss increasing the dose or changing the
medication to another biologic. You may wish to discuss the matter in more detail with your doctor to get a better understanding of his treatment plan - keep in mind that it is your body and your disease and therefore it is important that you and your doctor on the same page in terms of treatment. You may want to check out our section on being newly diagnosed for more information and tips and tricks on how to manage the disease and the side effects of medications.
I've had RA for over 40 years and have had times of very active disease where there's been a lot of pain and flaring and I've also had periods of less disease activity. However, it wasn't until I started the Biologics (first Enbrel, now Humira) that the disease was suppressed to such a degree that I don't have any inflammation.
And lastly, pregnancy tends to cause a temporary remission in women with RA, although the disease tend to come back about 6-8 weeks after birth.