alibonura

[alibonura]

hi im new on here, hello everyone im Ali, i am 47, ive had RA for 7yrs

ive been on salazopyrin 5oomg 2 twice a day for almost all of that time,Leflunomide 10mg 1 a day, lots of different pain killers, many steriod jabs that were amazing but now have no affect,

arthritisis so active i was also started on Humir injection every 2 wks as well as the other two meds, worked wonderful for 3mths then just before Xmas i was in constant pain my flares never seem to end, im now waiting to start Enbrel once a wk.

methotrexate i couldnt tolerate i only took 2 tablets n was very ill, everyday is a constant struggle but am hopeful that the Enbrel will work, anyone else on this biologic drug ? thanks for reading. x

[126Jessie]

Hi and welcome,I'm on Humira and have been on enbrel which failed. Humira worked great and is slowly not working. Jumping through hoops and tests to see what I get next, been on just about everything. Good luck with enbrel, here's hoping it's just the ticket x

[alibonura in reply to 126Jessie]

hi im starting to feel will anything ever work for the long term xx

[Hidden]

Hi Ali & welcome! Your ability to sum up 7 years in a few sentences is impressive! It must be so hard to 'keep the faith' that something will work, like you say. But if I ever get to the biologics stage then Enbrel is the one I want as, on average, I've heard the most good things about it. Really hope it makes a big difference to you, good luck, I look forward to hearing how it goes.

Luce xx

[alibonura in reply to Hidden]

thanks will keep you up dated xx

[missmopp]

hi I have been put forward for biologic hope they past me for them , got to see my rheum in April to see wots going to happen and wont they will put me on , as had a lot of side affects from all of my tablets , they up my methotrexate to 20mg but got to many side affects, so back down to 15mgs, but it dones not help with the pain ,, so fingers grossed , hope you thinks get better with you ,x

[alibonura in reply to missmopp]

hope you get passed for biologics missmopp and you get one that works for you xx

[Hidden]

Hi Ali and welcome. No advice from me as I've only had RA for 2 years and am doing well on injectable MTX and Hydroxy - but I agree with Luce that Enbrel seems to be the one most people on here find transforming so I do hope it is for you too. Tilda x

[manwithnoname]

Hi alibonura and welcome I only found this site a few days ago and I think it's great every one is so friendly on here.

[mille]

Hi, I was on enbrel for 3 months and i'm sorry to say it didn't help me at all, if anything it made me worse. I have heard of people on it that are doing really well though. I am now on rituximab and it has helped a lot. We all respond to different drugs and there will be one that helps you, it's just getting the right one so don't give up. Hopefully enbrel will be the one for you and if it works then you usually get the benefits fairly quickly whereas rituximab took 4 months to work for me.

Good luck x

[_andy_]

hi ali .. i started enbrel 7 weeks ago .. its changed my life ,, i am feeling 100 % better .. i hope you get the same results from enbrel has me .. good luck ... x

[Hidden]

Are you going to use humira and enbrel together? havent heard of this before x

Welcome to the site x.. are you sero positive ie positve rf factor do you know?

Alison

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Hi Alison

Currently two anti-TNFs would not be used in conjunction. I thought you might find this paragraph useful, taken from our Biologics booklet:

Can I take another type of biologic therap y while I’m on anti-TNF therapy?

Much more research is needed to know whether it would be beneficial or safe to

take more than one biologic at a time. If you are on anti-TNF therapy and doing

well, you will not be considered for additional biologic therapy. If you did not

respond, you could be considered for another biologic but you would not start the

next one until you had completely come off the current therapy.

To download the full document please follow this link: nras.org.uk/includes/docume...

Kind regards

Sarah Kate

NRAS

[alibonura in reply to Hidden]

hi Sarah Kate, thankyou for your reply, i responded very very well to Humira when first on it but after 3mths it just seemed to stop working.

have seen consultant and rumie nurse and now waiting to start Enbrel, will read the document thanks for replying xx

[alibonura in reply to Hidden]

just read the document thankyou xx

[alibonura in reply to Hidden]

hi Summer;

no ive been taken off Humira its been 3wks now im waiting to start enbrel, im not sure what factor i am,all i know is my rumie nurse and my consultant tell me they want to get mt arthritis under controll as its very very active, like i said before when i was started on Humira last September it was fantastic for 3mths i felt like i had my life back was free from pain it was wonderful but by December it just seemed to stop working had really bad flare and thats how ive been ever since, flares more often than not and lasting longer xx

[Hidden in reply to alibonura]

I read it too quickly and thought gosh you arent using two anti.tns.. hence Sarah. kates kind inervention.. think from my research limited though it is enbrel can give better success than humira?

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Hi Summer

There are limited head-to-head studies comparing the anti-TNF drugs, but a recent study in The Netherlands found the long-term effectiveness of Humira and Enbrel to be very similar. You can read a bit more about the results of this trial on the ARUK website: arthritisresearchuk.org/new...

Interestingly a poll published in 2011 comparing the treatment preferences of rheumatologists found that virtually the same percentage believe Enbrel and Humira to be the most effective treatments for RA.

43% of rheumatologists cited Enbrel as their recommended treatment option, while 42% preferred adalimumab! So there really seems to be very little to choose between them.

Rhematologist poll: arthritisresearchuk.org/new...

Kind regards

Sarah Kate

NRAS

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thank you sarah- kate x

[Hidden]

Very uieful document sarah. kate thank you just read it im just back from a first das score preassessment.. not sure what score is however as in told blodd tests are needed as part of the score.. im unfortunately on steroids.. get the feeling it will be 4 ? not 5.1 at this moment??. Im cross cos registrar that saw me as an emrgency six weeks ago gave me the impression he has done a preliminary score? , but nurse said he didnt write it down so this is my first das score.