Tocilizumab did it work for you

[Euphemia41]

Hi I am new to the site and feeling a bit apprehensive as I have been to see my rhuematoligist today ,and she wants to start me on Tocilizumab in 3 weeks .At the moment I take methotrexate sulfasalazine 4 a day and folic acid 6 days a week. Has anyone else had this biological therapy work for them.

[sarah2110]

I have been on tocilizumab for 18 months now. I started on it with mtx 25mg and hydroxychloroquine. They do this according to my ra nurse to knock it in to touch to start with. My liver function started to be affected within 3 months of the tocilizumab infusion beginning so the Mtx was stopped and i havent had that for a year now. The tocilizumab had an almost immediate effect on my blood levels not so much on the pain until late last year, oct, when i felt amazing relatively no pain and it has been more or less the same ever since.

You do need to be aware of some side effects of the drugs i have suffered with sickness and headaches. It does depend how you will be given the drugs i have infusion at the hospital but i am constantly being offered a self injection. (Im a chicken with needles so wont!)

Good luck with whatever treatment you have. You know that there is always someone on here who will have advice.

[Ozzy]

I have been on the infusions since June. My blood results show that my inflammation is almost zero. I still have painfull joints but the rhumy thinks this is do to damage that had already been done. I had a headache the first time I had the infusion but I now drink lots of water before and during as this seems to stop that happening. I have no other side effects. I would like to go onto the injections if offered them though, due to the fact that they would take me 5 minutes and the infusion is only just over an hour, but it's over an hour travelling each way to the hospital, and there can be delays if they are very busy when you get there.