Newby on a Big Learning Curve

sw8689

Hi, thank you for accepting me into your forum. I have most recently been diagnosed with Psa and started on low dose methotrexate. A little history, I have multiple sclerosis, it started 20 years ago, with almost immediate diagnosis. Autoimmune diseases are known to piggyback on one and other so I expect that my Psa is doing just that. When I was diagnosed with MS, I studied everything I could about the disease and medications and had the best clinic in North America taking care of me. Almost 18 years ago after a brutal three months of mitroxantrone (chemotherapy) for my ms I became stable and have been ever since. When the arthritis started, my regular doctor thought I had degenerative disc disease in my spine and neck and after a fall I had two fusions, low back and neck. Then my joints started hurting and swelling, so I was referred to a rheumatologist. The first rheumatologist diagnosed me with inflammatory osteoarthritis, no treatment to slow progression only anti inflammatory therapy. Over 3-4 years my hands crippled up and became very painful, because my son has psoriasis I wondered about psoriatic arthritis, but was shut down pretty fast because I didn’t have any active rashes. Because this rheumatologist was a fair distance away I was able to change to one closer who took one look at my hands and nails and other joints and sent me for an mri and other exams and tests, the outcome was the diagnosis of Psa. Thankfully there is treatment! And thankfully I found this site to learn from everyone’s experiences! So far methotrexate isn’t going well for me. Only had one dose, and I’m just not up to being so sick for three days a week for a drug that doesn’t prevent joint damage. I can only take certain DMARDs because of MS, so I’m going to ask for Otezla at my next appointment as I have been reading for days and this one seems most promising for me.

i would like to learn about other’s experiences with Otezla or other disease modifier drugs that worked well when dealing with multiple autoimmune diseases.

Again, thank you for having me onboard.

Dannii28

Hi @sw8689

Welcome to the Online Community Forum, so pleased you have found us, you will find there are lots of resources and information available to you, please feel free to have a look around the website.

I see that you have been suffering with psoriatic arthritis and have recently started taking methotrexate but are struggling with the side affects.  

I have attached some links below which you may find useful.

 

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/psoriatic-arthritis/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/drugs/methotrexate/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/drugs/apremilast/

I would also suggest having a look around the other forums as there might be other members that are going through the same thing as you and be able to share their own advice and experiences.

Let us know how you get on

Dannii (mod)

sw8689

Thank you Danii, I really appreciate the information that you have provided. I’m still learning to navigate the site, I have typed in Otezla and apremilast in the search but nothing comes up, so I must be doing something wrong. I’ll keep browsing, everything is very informative, I’m grateful to have found your forum.

stickywicket

Hi, I've no experience of rhis drug as my RA does well on methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine but I did manage to find some old threads for you here https://community.versusarthritis.org/search?query=apremilast&scope=site&source=community. I I hope they help.

I assume you're still in USA as, over here in UK, we wouldn't normally be allowed to pick our own boologic after only one dose of meth. We normally have to fail on three.DMARDS. I think it's all about cost as the biologics and biosimilars are so much more expensive. However, I wish you every success and I hope you tolerate it well and it works for you.

sw8689

Hi, thank you very much for sending me the threads! I’m not 100% positive that I will be easily allowed Otezla. I’m hoping so because I definitely cannot tolerate mtx, and with my ms drug regime and so many DMARDs that are contraindicated with ms I’m hoping to have a good chance at it. I’m in BC Canada, our rules are very similar, try the less expensive ones first and work up.. my fingers are crossed..

Loggiemod

Hi @sw8689 otzela is the same as apremilast, so have a look at the link that @Dannii28 put in above.

Hope it works for you