Thursday, May 31, 2012

colleen3

By Colleen3 Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Hi..I am a 40 year old female living with RA. I was diagnosed 8 years ago.Currently I am taking Humira, methotrexate. Lately, I am experiencing extreme fatigue and joint pain

6/ 3/09 11:06am

hi Colleen!

How long have you been on the Humira and MTX?   Is the pain and fatigue new, or something coming back after being on the meds for a long time?

 

i've been on Enbrel for four years and after a couple of years, I seemed to feel more pain & fatigue the day after, rather than better.  The second day after would be the best, then the third, I'd start to go downhill again.  I wondered if a) the meds were hurting, b) the meds were helping, but not as much as before, c) the disease was getting worse, d) the pain & fatigue were a side effect at that point that I couldnt' avoid, e) should I decrease or increase the frequency of shots?  (standard is 50 mg/week, either 25 twice a week (my schedule), or 50 mg once a week.....

 

I played around with the schedule a bit, and finally decided that the disease probably was getting worse, but my side effects were also increasing along with that.  PLUS - they don't tell you this, after you have RA damage, OA can follow.  And the RA meds won't help the OA.  and you can then have more fatigue from the OA pain.  (yeah, life sucks)

 

So - there are my thoughts on that.  You have to look at the whole situation and try and figure things out.  (My doctor says, why bother, you don't really know, but sorry, it's mybody and I NEED to know, if I possibly can!).

Best wishes, write some more!

Ellen

Ask a Question

Get answers from our experts and community members.

Btn_ask_question_med
View all questions (3513) >
By Colleen3— Last Modified: 06/03/09, First Published: 06/02/09