Sodding Neutrophils!

[AnneField]

I started metoject on 27th December as oral MTX was making me ill and scrawny. However, I've only had 2 jabs so far, thanks to low WBCs and low neutrophils. By rights, I should be about 6 or 7 weeks into these jabs but instead, my fingers are bright red and look like sausages!

What comes next? Do they just keep you on the metha-go-round for ages? Or does there come a point when they say "enough"? I've already tried SFZ, the yellow peril, but that made my psoriasis worse, I was like a walking snowglobe!

All advice gratefully accepted : )

[Deniseelk]

Love the picture! Fantastic, made me laugh. I couldn’t tolerate oral Methotrexate and it wasn’t working ( still greatly inflamed, hot, pains with sausage fingers). I tried it for 5 1/2 months before coming off and starting Benepali injections ( takes time to start due to re-assessment, applying for funding ( Rheumatologist does this), chest x-ray and blood screening to check for underlying infections due to Benepali suppressing the immune system which could “ wake up” any underlying infections, then potential treatment of underlying infections ( like I had to undergo)). In the meantime I was put on Prednisolone to tide me over ( luckily I can tolerate it and it works for me as the Depomedrone injection that can be administered doesn’t work for me). So rambling on but saying yes you have other options but if you are in the UK using NHS then my understanding is that you need to have tried the DMARD ( Methotrexate) for a minimum of 6 months and I believe had to of tried 2 DMARDs too ( i’m Sure others could give accurate advice on this point) before moving to a Biologic / Biosimilar such as Benepali. Benepali has been the one to work for me and been on it for 15 months ( although suffering with extreme tiredness and flares since August but investigating if something else is going on ). Don’t delay and suffer any more and request to see your Rheumatologist quickly. Very impressed you can bend your “ sausage” fingers as I couldn’t bend mine!!! Hoping you get your slim chipolatas back soon 🤣.

[helixhelix]

Love the photo - hope your fingers are free range!

Hopefully you have a rheumy who will push for you to move on to other things. If you "fail" on MTX then you don't have to stay on it for 6 months, and low WBC sounds like a fail to me! And since you've also tried another conventional DMARD if your disease activity score is high enough (over 5.1) then you should be eligible to move on to biologics.

So keep nagging your rheumy team and telling them that things are not good with you. You need some help now, as well as a better longer term plan.

[Hidden]

Whoa!! 😲 Your picture scared the living day lights out of me, then I put my glasses back on. All good, All good... 😂😂👀

Ruth 😉

[NeonkittyUK]

Same as Ruthietootie! 😱 I looked at the sausage pic without my reading specs on first thing on my mobile and thought someone had had a botched operation on their hand!! 😳Thank goodness not. 😬 I'm sorry your hands and fingers are sore Anne and hope that is under control asap. I too hope you have a rheumy who will push for biologics and not make you persist with Mtx. My hands and fingers were very swollen when RA was not under sufficient conrol. Puffy knuckles with no "valleys" inbetween the knuckles. It was the tell tale sign for me they said that I should have been on a more effective med. xx

[Shalf]

JEEZ!! What a fright!!

Thought Freddy Krueger had photobombed the site!!

Hope your feeling better than your fingers look! 😁

Xx

[NeonkittyUK in reply to Shalf]

😱😁

[Rheumagal]

Haha 😂 nice to see humour despite pain

[Moomin8]

Hiya

How is it going now?