Has Anyone been on etanercept and tell me how they are with it and how it is side effects too?

[LauraAsheighh]

[Hidden]

Hello Laura,

I have been on entanercept/enbrel for 4 months now and it has changed my life!

I take MTX as well still but hope to reduce that soon. I started to notice the difference after 6 weeks and gradually got better and better, even this week I feel the last of my swelling go down in my hands.

I was only diagnosed this year but I see from your profile you have had it a long time yet you sound very positive

Anyway, I have not had any side effects whatsoever so thats good, it is a bit scary though but I'm so very grateful for it. I've gone from been unable to do much for myself and walk very little, now I'm back at work and manage to get to the gym a few times a week! I would say I am 90% better.

I really hope this will be your 'miracle' as well x

[LauraAsheighh in reply to Hidden]

Thankyou very much for information, am feeling very positive am waiting to change to etanacept thankyou made me feel good now x

[Hidden]

your welcome! please keep in touch, would love to hear (we all would!) how you get on x

[LauraAsheighh]

i will dont worry, like to make friends on here and get to know about everyones illness just like mine it makes me feel like im not the only one and other people know what im going through so thankyou so much much appreciated

[MrsFitz17]

Hi Laura,

I was on enbrel for a year and it was fantastic. I had some pretty bad injection site reactions but it turned out to be a latex allergy and I was fine when I switched to syringes instead of the pen. The only side effect I had was a constant runny nose!

Good luck

Mary

[Ella32]

Hi

I am 32 had juvinile arthritis since i was 13 yrs old, i have been on etanercept since i was 25 (i was one of the first after the trials;-0)

It has improved my arthritis about 60-70%, enough to have a life, a good life, my arthritis still effects me and i still have bad days but flares are few and far between!, I have had no other side effects from the drug except slightly more frequant bugs/infections that take slightly longer to get better, eg if you pick the skin round your nails it takes longer to heal and it you have a wee/chest infection it may take 2 courses of anti biotics to clear.

As i am sure you know they say that you MUST be on the ball if you feel un well eg cold/infection and get on anti biotices straight away and miss that weeks injection, but as long as you feel ok about judging that and injecting yourself (which most of us do already) i say GO FOR IT, i never looked back

Hope this helps?

Ella xx

[LauraAsheighh]

Thanks to everyone who has commented reading all of this is a big help, and am looking forward to going from methotrexate which has no effect anymore for me to etanercept so thanks for all your comments and advice x

[Traceymummy]

Hi, I've been on etanacept for 3 years. It has revolutionised my life and improved its quality by a large percentage. I was almost bedridden with 2 very small children to look after. I was on 50mg of prednisolone, plus intra muscular injections of steroids and 25mg mtx but nothing worked. I saw an improvement within 3 weeks of being on etanacept. I still suffer with my RA and experience flare ups but instead of these being weekly and lasting for 3-4 days they are now monthly and last a couple of days.. I still get tired and have problem sleeping due to pain but I have been able to start a degree in law part-time since etanacept. Unfortunately my disease is very aggressive and has caused deformities to my body very quickly so I require the use of aids and appliances including bespoke orthoses. The etanept doesn't correct these. It also depletes your immune system significantly and infections are problematic: a cold can become a chest infection within a couple of days. Likewise cuts and scratches have to be kept clean immediately after occurring otherwise I'm in trouble. That's the trade off I suppose.

[muffin]

Have bee in enbrel for 6 years. It is marvellous. Go for it. It changed my life.

[robert45]

I have just started etanacept a little nervous about doing the injections myself,but i hope this works aswell for me as others