Thursday, August 14, 2008
My neighbor that was diagnosed iwth RA this past year, told me the other day that she is now in remission. How can this be? I was diagnosed almost 7 years ago and I haven't found any combination of drugs yet that even take care of my pain. I have been on dozens of different drugs over the years and they have never been able to get my inflammation rating under control to even take me off prednisone. In fact I am now up to 15mg of prednisone per day, 9 pills of methotrexate and have had 4 injections of Enbrel so far. How could she have symptoms enough to be diagnosed and within a year go into remission? I had never heard of this. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled for her. I am just wondering when and what it will take for me to get some relief after nearly 7 years. Today is especially a bad day, and maybe I am feeling a little down, so I am looking for any options possible. For the folks doing the Enbrel injections can you share with me how long it took before you started to notice a difference? I keep hoping each day that I will notice a difference and the doctor will have finally have found the right combination of drugs for me. Thanks for any info people can share about remission and Enbrel.
I've been on enbrel for some months now and it has taken me very close to being "normal" again. I had ra mostly in my hands and arms but it was pretty severe. My hands were so swollen they looked like they'd been inflated by air and I could barely bend my fingers. After trying several different combinations of prednisone, methotrexate, and leflunomide my dr finally said I'd have to move up to the next stage of meds. I was first on humira which did work some but the dr was still not happy so he put me on enbrel (I've been on methotrexate since the beginning). By the fourth week on it I still really didn't see much effects and I was sooo dissappointed. But then by magic the fifth week I could see my hands were better. Now my hands are almost all the way back to normal and I have no bad pain anymore. As far as what effects I still have some joint weakness and mild pain in the morning...but that's about it. I'm ever so thankful that something worked for me. I hope it works as well for you too, maybe you'll get that good jolt of pleasant surprise like I did by the fifth week. I wish the best of luck!