Benepali - and other biologics

BettyMac

I'm just about to start Benepali and wondered about the incidence of infections requiring antibiotics.

What have other people found?

I'm hoping a biologic will get my RA under control - but it sometimes seems that every drug requires another to control the side effects of the previous one.
It reminds me of one of those lines of dominoes; push the first one and ..................

dreamdaisy

I have been taking biologics for years and have not been any more ill with bugs and infections than I ever was. I am scrupulous about hand hygiene, as is my husband, and I always have anti-gravity wipes to hand:. oh I love auto-correct! I type what I want and my machine ignores it! Anti-bac wipes was the intention. Blasted technology.

I established my normal body temperature some years ago, I hover between 36 and 36.5. If I feel more under-the-weather than usual that is the first thing I check. My digital thermometer happily shows 37 or more in the green zone but I know for me that that is an indication that things are not right. My hospital has always told me to stop the meth and humira if I have a cough, sore throat and/or temperature so I do. I used to bother telling them, now I don't as they never reply. I avoid people with coughs and colds (they rarely understand the import of a suppressed immune system) because I know from the experience of others that one can be very ill and not necessarily know it.

I have found over the years that maintaining a quiet vigilance is all that is required. My spouse is also meticulous about hand hygiene and guests are usually quite accepting of a blob of hand gel on arrival, a ritual I introduced when I was working as a personal tutor and had pupils coming into my home. It is a big deal but best treated as though it is not - and don't forget the anti-gravity wipes. DD

stickywicket

I've never done biologics but deal with DMARDS (meth and hydroxy for me) exactly as DD does. I don't think I am prescribed antibios any more now than I was 18 years ago before I started on these meds. Go for it, BettyMac and I hope it works for you.

BettyMac

Anti-gravity wipes!
Love it
😍

Thanks for your replies.
I haven't noticed any more infections while I've been on methotrexate but it obviously pays to be sensibly careful about things.

daffy2

Now that would be a really useful invention, anti-gravity wipes, can think of many situations where they would make my life so much easier, lacking A N Other to help with lugging duties.