My mom has had RA for about 10 years. She was on Celebrex and developed artrial fibrillation. She then was on Remicade and developed a serious fungal infection. Now her dr has given her a choice of three drugs. They are Humira (adalimumab); Enbrel (etanercept); and Orencia (abatacept). Can anybody give me advice on what they feel is the best choice as far as side effects and what has worked for them. Hi PJ...I can't make a comparison of the three, all I've taken is Enbrel. It has worked very well for me in combo with methotrexate. I have had no side effects, save an itchy red patch at shot site that would last a day or two. It doesn't do that anymore though.So sorry to hear about your mom. Well as far as the meds go...whew that is a toughie. With all 3 of those meds you have to watch out for getting infections like sinus infections and upper respiratory stuff. The reason you are more susceptible to infections is that the meds suppress the immune system. Therefore your ability to fight things off is compromised. Humira and Enbrel are injections done at home either bi-weekly or weekly. Orencia is done like Remicade...by infusion and on about the same schedule as Remicade. I guess it would all depend on what is best for her lifestyle. I had really no side effects with Humira when I was on it. I am now going to be doing Rituxin since I failed Humira. When the Humira was working for me it was great. You could not tell I had RA. I was also on methotrexate at the same time tho and that helped a lot. Has the doc mentioned mtx to your mom? It helps the other meds work much better. Good luck to your mom no matter what med she chooses. Please keep us updated on her.
Well............seeing how she developed an infection while on Remicade, I'm willing to say :
Be very careful no matter which one you chose. They all can leave a person more suseptable to infections. That being said, your body is going to react differently to each drug. So while it may have been easy for her to get an infection while on remicade, she might do just fine on say, Enbrel. Who knows, it's a crap shoot sometimes.
I would think about each drug, perhaps visit their websites and see the pros and cons to each. For the most part, I believe things like side effects are pretty much the same. But again, you may react to one, and not the other.
It really is a hard decision, in way all the meds are so similar, and in others they're so very different. If it comes down to where none really seem any better or worse than the rest, perhaps asking the doc would be in order.
Good luck!
My mom has been on methotrexate for about 10 years, she is also on folic acid and predisone 5mg a day.I want to say that out of the drugs they've tested, they say that Humira and MTX work very well together. Not that MTX doesn't work well with other drugs, just for some reason it works even better with Humira. Perhaps that's something to consider?I tried enbrel but it didn't work for me. I had my first injection of Humira two days ago, so far I can't tell much difference. I swear I did better on Plaquenil. I hope your mom feels better soon :)I have had rheumatoid arthritics for 10 years. I've been on Plaquenil, Celebrex, Methotrexate, folic acid, Prednisone and lastly Remicade. The doctor took me off Remicade because of a serious infection. Now they want me to decide what I should try next. I'm wondering if Enbrel or Humira would work. I'm concerned about infections since I developed one with Remicade. Any suggestions?Your mom might look into AP (antibiotic therapy) as it doesn't suppress the immune system. Check out www.roadback.org
That being said...what kind of fungal infection? How did they treat it? Are they absolutely sure it's gone? Because if those of us on AP don't take our probiotics we can get a serious yeast infection. I was on diflucan weekly as well as massive probiotics and I'm just getting a handle on the yeast. There are candida diets etc that help starve the yeast out.
Hugs,
Pip