Hi there,

I don't think Lisa has seen your question, so if you want to specifically ask her, try sending her a private message - click on her profile and you will find a link to sending her a message.

Lisa has previously written about her experience with Rituxan (here and here) and those posts may give you the answers you're looking for. Keep in mind that Lisa has both RA and MS, which had a lot to do with why she and her doctor chose Rituxan instead of the other biologic - when you have MS, you can't take a number of Biologics and I'm pretty sure Remicade is among them. If you don't have any other medical conditions than RA, your doctor may recommend starting you on Enbrel, Humira or Remicade - they've been around the longest and doctors tend to start there, moving onto other Biologics if necessary. It is also my impression that Rituxan is at the top of the ladder, if you will. That means it's the medication people try when nothing else has worked. Currently, there are nine Biologics on the market, so if you haven't tried any of them yet, you have lots of options that have a very good chance of helping your RA. Most people tolerate the Biologics very well with manageable side effects - check out my post on managing side effects for more information on how to keep things down to a dull roar.

I hope that answered some of your questions. If you need more, please post it here, send Lisa a message or you can send me a message, as well.