Enbrel?????

purvesrosie

Hi all, After a month of sulphasalazine i have not tolorated it at all. I have constant headaches and stomach pains and feel drained, the RA is also getting worse instead of better,
The rhuemy nurse says to stop straight away and they are going to try and get me on enbrel? i have to go to be asessed at end of the month then again after another month. She is confident i will get it as my RA is very active and severe. I'm a bit concerned about it all. I guess i'm after some reassurance and other peoples experiances?Is it hard to inject yourself? Will I tolorate it? If it works how will i feel? If it doesn't what's left to try?
I guess i'm a bit scared and confused. It will be over two months with no DMARDS, while we sort it out.
Any advice welcome.
Hope your all well
Rosie x

ninewells

purvesrosie wrote:

Hi all, After a month of sulphasalazine i have not tolorated it at all. I have constant headaches and stomach pains and feel drained, the RA is also getting worse instead of better,
The rhuemy nurse says to stop straight away and they are going to try and get me on enbrel? i have to go to be asessed at end of the month then again after another month. She is confident i will get it as my RA is very active and severe. I'm a bit concerned about it all. I guess i'm after some reassurance and other peoples experiances?Is it hard to inject yourself? Will I tolorate it? If it works how will i feel? If it doesn't what's left to try?
I guess i'm a bit scared and confused. It will be over two months with no DMARDS, while we sort it out.
Any advice welcome.
Hope your all well
Rosie x

Go for it Rosie.
I have been on Enbrel for 2 years now and am very grateful for it. I may be one of the fortunates but some days I feel I have no RA at all. It has enabled me to complete a degree course at uni and back to work. The only time i am absent from work is to attend medical appointments. As for self injection, you may be a bit apprehensive at first but it soon becomes the norm. I will on the odd occasion have a few seconds discomfort while injecting but far outweighted by the benefits. I hope and pray you recieve the benefits I have had.

voyager21

hi, completely agree with ninewells, i have been on enbrel for some time and it has completely changed my life. self injecting is easy as its only a short needle and you will very quickly get used to it. i started to feel the benefit of the enbrel after just a few days. good luck. peter.

bagpuss

Hi Rosie

I have just had my 1st injection of enbrel.
After being on prednisole for about 5 years, this seemed to stop working for me, coming off these, being in total agony for about 3 months my RA nurse gave me a steriod in the bum. A week later I had the enbrel jab. I cannot tell you if it is the steriod jab or enbrel ,but I have felt relief and more movement. I have had a lot of bad reactions from a lot of past medications they have put me on, but enbrel so far has had no bad side affects. so fingers crossed.
It can be quite daunting starting new medication. I have recently found this site and find it very comforting
Hope it works out ok for you
Jessica

colinone

Hello Rosie
I can only echo what the others have, medication or finding the right medication can be a long road and for some because of cost drugs like Enbrel can be a long way off for some. I am in the middle of a break from Enbrel but hope to be starting again in a couple of weeks. Doing my own injection was not easy for me i hate it but as the others say it is easy and most of the time you get little or no pain from the injection itself. I know you will worry about side effects and all sorts of other things but offten the pain your in outways the disadvantages and hey its worth a go just to see if it works for you. Offten the Rheumy is as dissapointed as you because they want you feeling better. Anyway Rosie its all down to you take care and keep your chin up
Colin