Good morning

Cressida

Good morning, I have had rheumatoid arthritis for 30 years and until 4 years ago it was fairly well managed. Now on biologics and interested to see how others get on with them.

[Deleted User]

Hello Cressida welcome to the Versus Arthritis online community on behalf of the Moderating team.

I see you have 30 years’ experience with Rheumatoid Arthritis so I won’t try to ‘teach my Grandmother to suck eggs’ by adding links to relevant information as I would normally do! I suspect you will have plenty of experience to share with the community yourself.

You have come to the right place to hear people’s stories about their experiences of biologic/ Anti-tnf medications. Having said that, it might be useful to post in the Living with Arthritis forum, mentioning the word biologic/the name of your specific medication in the title.

Best wishes

Ellen

stickywicket

Hello and welcome from me too. I'm another long-term 'RAer'. (Are there any short-term ones I'd quite like that )

I've never done biologics. Once DMARDS finally arrived in my life I found a combination of methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine did a good job. Mod Ellen, as usual, gives excellent advice. I'd just temper it with a word of caution in that those for whom all is going well rarely bother with sites such as ours so we are weighted in favour of those who are not doing so great which can make the overall picture seem gloomier than it is. One thing is obvious, though ie we are all different. We react differently to meds and one person's 'meat' is another's 'poison'.

I hope your biologic works well and long for you.

Cressida

stickywicket wrote:

Hello and welcome from me too. I'm another long-term 'RAer'. (Are there any short-term ones I'd quite like that )

I've never done biologics. Once DMARDS finally arrived in my life I found a combination of methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine did a good job. Mod Ellen, as usual, gives excellent advice. I'd just temper it with a word of caution in that those for whom all is going well rarely bother with sites such as ours so we are weighted in favour of those who are not doing so great which can make the overall picture seem gloomier than it is. One thing is obvious, though ie we are all different. We react differently to meds and one person's 'meat' is another's 'poison'.

I hope your biologic works well and long for you.

Your post made me smile! I've actually just moved from Humira to Imraldi a biosimilar. I found it more difficult to administer as you have to hold the pen against your skin and the needle sort of pops out! I think it's the shock of waiting for it. I am also on methotrexate by injection. I will have a look through the existing threads as I'm sure there's already a lot of stuff on here that would be useful to me. It's good to hear your disease is controlled. I was on sulphasalazine for years until things all went a bit downhill.

dreamdaisy

Hello, I have psoriatic arthritis plus OA and am also on the meth/imraldi combo. I have done three imraldi injections so far and, despite my best intentions not to feel any different, I am and not in a good way. I was lucky enough to see my consultant when I rang my Helpline (who immediately booked me in for an urgent appointment) and she immediately said I would be transferred back to humira but that will take some time to happen. I have a thread about it on the Living with Arthritis board on here but I cannot recall its name!

I hope you find the forum to be of interest, we all get it because we've all got it. DD

Cressida

dreamdaisy wrote:

Hello, I have psoriatic arthritis plus OA and am also on the meth/imraldi combo. I have done three imraldi injections so far and, despite my best intentions not to feel any different, I am and not in a good way. I was lucky enough to see my consultant when I rang my Helpline (who immediately booked me in for an urgent appointment) and she immediately said I would be transferred back to humira but that will take some time to happen. I have a thread about it on the Living with Arthritis board on here but I cannot recall its name!

I hope you find the forum to be of interest, we all get it because we've all got it. DD

Hello thanks for the response and welcome. Sorry to hear you are suffering. How do you feel about the Imraldi jab compared to the Humira? I suppose I will get used to it. I started my Imraldi 2 weeks ago but just found a Humira injection hidden behind something in the fridge! Do you think I would be okay to use it and then go back to the Imraldi? I hate to think of wasting it knowing how much they cost!

dreamdaisy

If it's still in date then yes, use it; it is horrendously expensive so just not be wasted. Humira has three excipients (one of which is water) whereas imraldi has six (one being water) and I think it's these other ingredients which is not suiting my physiology. I also have psoriatic rather than rheumatoid so my joint damage is different. I read somewhere that the switch to imraldi has saved the NHS an incredible amount of money, something like £300 million p/a. :shock:

I have no feelings about the injection or its method of delivery whatsoever, it controls disease activity, no more. It has never reduced pain levels and certainly did not give me my life back as I know it has for others but that's always been life for me, missing the health buses that others so casualty catch. DD