Does Enbrel help? | Arthritis Information

Could those of you taking Enbrel please answer this question and let me know if it is helping? Also is there such a thing as the makers of Enbrel letting your try it out with a sample? I went to the doctor today and he said the disease is still active. I am on Methotrexate and just got off of Prednisone which I would prefer not to try again. So he wants to add Enbrel to the Methotrexate instead. I told him I needed sometime to think about it and we will be talking in a few days. I would consider Reumacaid but it is sooo expensive. So I hope this will help. And one more thing...are there a lot of side effects? Hope you are having a good day! Thanks for your help

I doubt a sample will help you much. Some of these medications take weeks to months to become fully effective. Also; you mentioned the expense of Remicade. Your insurance will pay for it. no one could afford to use any of these biologics unless it did. Have you looked into the cost of Enbrel? It isn't cheap.

My Humira is over 00 a month. I could never afford that.

Best of luck to you. Hope you have a good experience.

And Welcome Brenda.

I use enbrel and i have been since february. It gave me relief withon 24 hours for the swelling i had in my hands... it tookabout 4 months to get full effects.. I take 25mg MTX and 50mg/ml Enbrel on friday mornings... seems like its enough of a boost to make it through to the next friday... Thursday evening sometimes i am a bit stiffer...

I am getting over some wierd flare or pull or something. My right knee sorta went out about 3 weeks ago after mowing the lawn (which needs to be done again today) and i started back on the pred that i had weaned off of. But now im weaning off of it again slowly and as i do the knee is getting better. Still sore when i walk on it, but i am not limping any more.

Roxy, you can see where people get their smilies from by right clicking the picture and then clicking on properties... there it lists the web site it comes from... its that easy.. i couldnt remember smilieland and couldnt find the post about it, so i found a way to find a way! get it?

OK off to read Harry Potter some more!(1 week til work... Sniff Sniff)

Laters

I would like to try Enbrel. I wanted to try Humira until I heard it causes some people to have weight gain and that always scares me. I don't swell so maybe it will work faster on me. I sure could use some energy.

First of all I get the smiley's from Smiley Central- They are too fun

Ask your doctors if there is a marketing study they could do. I got lucky and my RD asked if I wanted to do a Humira study. Everything related to it is free for 3 months...including the Humira. Ya might get lucky.

I haven't heard of it causing weight gain, can't be worse than prednisone in that way...I think if you are active enough, or again in my case it may be easier to lose weight from feeling better.

No real weight gain here either; but then again I always lose a great deal of weight when the RA is more active and I'm in what every one considers a flair. During that time I'm always what my doctor considers under weight and gaining a few extra pounds when I start feeling better is really just another good thing about my meds. I lose my appetite when I'm what I consider sick with this disease. Being under weight is hard on your joints just as it is to be over weight too.

Susan; Our Info section on the front of the message boards page has a good bit of reference material that our members have put together while we've debated these biologics in the past. There's one there that talks about MS; and several of these biologics mention this too. Humira which I take is one of them. I didn't realize it until after I'd been on it for long enough to be sold on it or I might have reconsidered. Now; I'm happy enough with the results I've decided to take the chance. There's chances of lots of things happening with these medications. Lots of really scary things; but I...and lots of others like me here have decided that our day to day well being and quality of life depends on these medications.

I hope what ever choice you make it will be the right one for you. That's the thing...everyone reacts differently to each of these medications. We're all having great results with all of them...sometimes it's trial and error finding the one that's right for you. Here's to hoping your first choice is the best one.

Lovie

I've been on enbrel for about a year and a half and it has been life changing for me. I'm so much more active now than ever before. I'm able to bend over and touch my toes for the first time in my life! It kicked in for me in about 2 weeks time but it can take a month or more to do so.

I have had weight gain (though I was underweight before), dry eyes, headaches and elevated blood pressure. Though now I take a beta blocker to alleviate the headaches and blood pressure.

I don't stop taking ebrel with a cold or flu - only if I have a fever or infection. Aslo, I don't notice it wearing off at all. But all meds do at some point. Arava worked wonders for me for years and then just wore off and stopped working.

I'm very pro biologics. It's the first type of drug that has really made a tremendous difference in my quality of life. All the others made the pain, stiffness and fatigue less noticeable whereas the enbrel has made the discomforts of RA nearly disappear.

Good luck and keep us posted!