rituxamab

bevman

Hi my husband suffers with sever RA he is on MTX 20mg self injection which he has just started at home he is also on sulfazalisine and has been on Embrel for twelve months.His rummy has said that his RA is proving to be very difficult to controll as he is still in severe pain he is also on steroids.We have just had an apointment with his consultant and he has said they might put him on rituxamab i have just been reading about this drug and i am very concerned about the side effects as he already has kidney problems and is on permenant antibiotics to help with infection he has reduced kidney function.I wonder what your thoughts are about this i would be gratefull for any help.
thanks a lot Alison

helpline_team

Dear Alison,

Thank you for your enquiry to us here at Helplines. I'm concerned to hear of these worries that you and your husband are dealing with at the moment.

When you dealing with complex medical problems it can be very difficult knowing what to do for the best. The role of us here at Helplines is to try to listen and give you time and space to reflect on these decisions. But because we are not medically trained we have to be honest about our limitations.

We have information about the self - management of inflammatory arthritis and can pass on information about the different treatments available, but we may not be the people you need if things are very technical and need weighing up.

If your husband's inflammatory levels are still high after a lot of treatment it may be that the specialists may need to look at treatment options again. There situations are rarely simple. You both will to some extent need to consider how you feel about putting yourselves in the hands of these specialists.

You may question the kind of relationship you have with the doctors and their team. You may wish to find a second opinion.

If you want to talk about this kind of communication - or how to formulate your questions, you are welcome to talk to us informally. These kinds of converstations may be better on the phone (they are rather lengthy to type out) - you are welcome to ring our freephone.

Also do talk all of this over with the GP - they need to be in the loop.

And finally just because a drug has a list of possible side effects does not mean they are guaranteed to happen, so some fears may be able to be reassured through proper monitoring.

I hope we can help further

Guy