yay confirmed doube-ly confirmed diagnosis, and biologics?

lizzy100

So I saw my specialist yesturday and asked him when i could get a proper diagnosis and he said he would be happy to say its arthritis now, and that hes been putting it on letters for a while. ! so i guess noones going to sit me down and tell me my diagnosis, its more meh yea you;ve got it. o well its only taken a year.
then he said next step would be biologics like alpha TNF. :roll: has anyone had these? at least they believe me and are taking me serious now, but im going to have to get a new doc soon as im moving, and hope i dont have to go through all this again.

maria09

Hi
It would be helpful if your rheumy consultant could write to your new one with your diagnosis and treatments
I have osteo arthritis as well as inflammatory arthritis
Next step for me will be anti tnf drugs as nothing is working at min
Take care
M

tillytop

Hello,

You asked if anyone else has had biologics. I'm on my third biologic, the first two of which were anti-tnfs and both helped me hugely. Infliximab, my first biologic, gave me 5 years of complete RA remission and, although the second, Humira, didn't work quite as well, if I hadn't been "spoiled" by the Infliximab, I would have been thrilled by the results. Rituximab is my current biologic and it is definitely helping but not as much as the other two. I don't think Rituximab is usually offered as a first biologic though, so I'm guessing you will be offered Infliximab (hospital infusion), Humira or Enbrel (self-injected). I think there are now some other, newer, biologics now too, but those three seem to be the most commonly used ones.

If you do move onto the biologics, hope you find they help you as much as they have me.

Tilly

lizzy100

thanks for the replies, thats interesting. i was wondering if they were all injected. i hate hospitals so having to go in for infusions would be horrific.

i dont have a rheummatologist, but i asked my specialist to write to my gp with my diagnosis which he said he would. the next guy im seeing is a ttop specialist in london so im hoping hel know about all the treatments and that id i tel him hel believe me.

lizzieuk1

Biologics are given in various ways so either injected at home or infused in hospital, am not sure of ur history but are u aware the 'nice' guidelines often ask for trial on 2/3 dmards before putting u on biologics??