Enbrel

katedrugan

Hi

I've been on Enbrel for 9 months for Psoriatic Arthritis in my hips and spine. For the last 6 the disease seems to be under control, and my hips are back to normal. However I still have daily pain in my spine, ranging from just bearable to wipe out.

Could the continuing pain be due to damaged joints ? All the blood-test indications is that the inflammation is well under control, and taking a COX2 inhibitor doesn't make any difference to the levels of pain, so I'm assuming inflammation has nothing to do with it.

What are other peoples experience with Enbrel and spinal arthritis ?

Many thanks

Kate

dorcas

Hello Kate and welcome to the forum

I have PA and was on Enbrel , but only for a very short time (due to an adverse reaction) before moving on to other anti tnfs.

I was told by my docs that although anti tnfs are wonderful drugs they do not eliminate PA but do, for a lot of people, slow the process down. This does mean that we still can continue to get deterioration in the joints........ which has been my experience.

PA can be unpredictable and continuing damage to joints, I think, is assessed on the evidence .....via x ray, scans etc.

Maybe the best thing to do would be to ask your rheummy the question you have about the pain in your spine and whether this has a relationship to inflammation and Enbrel?. Are you due to see him/ her soon?

At the very least it sounds as though you are not getting sufficient pain relief and would benefit from a review of your meds....

nice to meet you

You might want to copy your post and put it on the 'Living with Arthritis' board; more peeps will read it there and you might get more answers too.

Iris x

greeneyedlady

I'm on Enbrel and it doesn't work for me at all... my neck aches, and my knees, elbows and ankles look like water balloons. Not to mention my ribcage and jaw....

I was on Humira and it was a,azing but it started to fail and nthey put me on Enbrel. I hope it works out better for you than me, but I think Humira is better.

dreamdaisy

I too have PA (without the P component unless I'm flaring) in my toes, ankles, knees, shoulders, hands and, occasionally when it wants to make my life more miserable, jaw. I was on Enbrel for a while, but it didn't work. I had a break, then moved to Humira. This has been miraculous in terms of inflammation levels (upper hundreds to single digits after one dose) but the pain levels are still very high. These drugs work differently for different people - I have read posts from people who are cycling, gardening, walking etc. I'm still struggling to walk and am always on crutches. It's nice not having knees the size of watermelons, yes, but the pain is intolerable. Anti TNFs are not the miracle workers I expected, but it is pleasant having ice-cold knees, even if the rest of me is absolute $%^&.

These drugs are not cures as far as I'm concerned. They alleviate some symptoms, don't touch others. Everyone reacts differently to them - this is my third Anti TNF and has been the longest-lasting in its effects, 9 months to date. Battle on! Dreamdaisy

greeneyedlady

same as me, dreamdaisy. My ESR h is 16 and it was once very high, but functionbally I've still got problems.