Cancer takes you off Enbrel | Arthritis Information
I have been taking Enbrel for about 6 years. A little over a month ago, i was hospitalized with colon cancer. Of course I am in waiting to take Chemo, how ever i am no longer able to take my enbrel so my body can strengthen itself. I AM IN SO MUCH PAIN! No one will give me anything stronger than Darvocet. ALSO, i found how one Enbrel study states, out of 4000 + people, 67 came down with Colon, Lung or Breast Cancer. Now what do i do??? Oh my god !! I so feel for you !!
Have you tried massages with essential oils ? My husband gives me massages when I am in pain and it seems to help .
Sorry you are in this predicament. No one should have to suffer with pain. Darvocet did nothing for me when I had severe RA pain either. Nothing did until they finally gave me oxycondtin. I had to fight for it. I didn't stay on it for long. It broke the pain cycle for me.
My doctor told me RA is not treated with narcotics. I said I realize it is not TREATED with narcotics but many diseases also come with terrible pain and people are given narcotics to alleviate it. No one should be suffering like I am- you are a very cruel person. Hope you don't have to go that far.
My doctor wants me on biologics too- I have fears of what just happened to you when I read the studies. Hope you are cured and feeling better fast.
Thank you, Miami and Wanttobe.. My daughters take turns rubbing me down, but its not one of their favorite things to do (nothing like rubbing on a old woman). I also stretch, that helps somewhat. It is as if my RA doc. has turned her back on me while im going thru this. Her nurse called me and said " when your done with your cancer treatment, give us a call". My regular doctor is stuck in the middle. Sooo, Im hanging on a limb. Hi Cynthia, I'm so sorry to read this. My heart goes out to you and I'm furious with your doctors. They truly are doing you a disservice and aren't treating the whole person. It's cruel to expect you to suffer through the pain. What savages. I think that I'd call and get an appt. with my internist and talk with them about pain control. Many RDs won't give sufficient pain control to their patients and they leave that to the family doctors and internist or a pain management doctor or clinic. They act as if pain management, even on a small scale isn't part of their practice, even though pain is the chief complaint of their patients. Please be firm with your family doctor. You're suffering enough and I don't think proper pain control is going to interfere with the disease process and chemotherapy. In fact if you're pain is controlled then chemo may be easier on you. Have you been to the oncologist and do they have a treatment plan done for you? Your oncologist also needs to be in the loop on this. Take care and keep us posted. Lindy I am so sorry to hear about your pain and cancer. It is hard when you get ill, having drugs that stop your immune system makes it hard for treatments to work on your cancer.
I don't really know of any drugs that aren't immune stopping. Maybe try for the strongest drug in the category with ibuprofen, naproxen etc. and pain killers.
I am sorry i couldn't have been of more help. Please keep us posted.
I am so sorry.. I wish you quickly through treatments, back to health, and back to treatments ...I am so sorry to hear this, you must be in absolute agony. My hairdresser and dear friend in Indiana had the colon cancer. SHe had to undergo surgery and had a good recovery.
I didn;t realize that the Enbrel had those stats. You see, I am the one that always gets sick. I am the one that always is on the <1% to get a disease. SO the stats mean the exact same thing to me as they do to you.
All you can do is what you are doing and fight the cancer. As for the pain.....oh noooooooo, I would bitch and complain and nag and nag to get some sort of relief from the pain. The RA has to wait in line so to speak so you can beat the cancer. Then you and the RD have to figure which meds.......which gun/nuke to use. It is a biological war within your body.......but it is not the end.
I am so sorry to hear this. It makes it scary for all of us.
Have you ever seen the movie "The Doctor" with William Hurt? It is by far one of the best movies ever if you ask me. It reveals so many of the dynamics that we all go through and the friendships formed due to the disease, coping skills, deep caring human thoughtfulness, ect. It also is excellant in describing the anger that goes with being so ill. In the scene where the news of the elderly lady with the yarn has died, the group of people sitting in the waiting room for their chemo treatments is devestated for their friend. The fact that they realize that it could happen to them at any time is acted so well, and feels so genuine when watching it. Kind of like here. A lot like here. So know you have our support and we feel for you and are scared for you.........and ourselves. I was on enbrel, it could be me next. I do not want to be in the pain you described.....noway.
PUSH your docs for more pain meds.
Prayers sent for you!
jodejjr2008-04-01 07:32:51I am sorry, Iveyoe.
Much hugs & prayers.
hi ivypoe sorry to be reading this... i wonderd if they could possibly give you
a depomedrol injection to tide you over... Boney
[QUOTE=Ivypoe]. It is as if my RA doc. has turned her back on me while im going thru this. Her nurse called me and said " when your done with your cancer treatment, give us a call". . [/QUOTE]
I think seeing you go through this would make it too real for the RA dr., that her meds might have contributed to this. 'Come back when you're done' - they want to see you when they can pretend it was no big deal, you are fine now.
I think you need to really speak up to your other drs. that you pain is not controlled without your RA meds. There is no need for you to suffer so much with everything else going on! Take care.
Ivypoe, I'm so sorry for what you're going through. How awful. I wonder if contacting a pain specialist would be helpful. He/she may have knowledge of less well known drugs that would fit your needs right now. Certainly someone should be taking care of your pain issues. It's hard enough to deal with cancer without fighting pain at the same time. Please keep us posted on your progress. I expect that at this time next year you'll be looking back on this as a bad time in your life, but be ready to move forward. (Hugs)I love you all!!..Thank you for your prayers, and thoughts..God bless you all for your compassion!Hi I wish I had your e-mail address to write you in person. I (31 yrs) started taking enbrel six months ago. I have read about the side effects such as cancer that enbrel can have. As a young scholar (not of medicine) I find it important to stay updated on research. I read medical journals and I read recently that after you take Chemo, your RA will disappear with cancer. I wish you lots of patience with all the pain you have to endure until your Chemo starts. I hope you will become a successful cancer and RA survivor at the same time.
My email address is Ivypoes@aol.comGood Lord people, I haven't been gone a week!
Antibiotics are not immune suppressant so she could take those!
Ivypoe - do a google search for minocycline and colon cancer. If I get a second, I'll try to find the colon cancer studies that I saved a while back. One article/study said it 'stopped cancer in it's tracks'. I kept it because we have colon cancer in my family. I considered it a bonus as I'm on AP and this is yet another benefit to it.
Check out
www.roadback.org for more info on treating RA with antibiotics but please don't leave here.
Hugs,
Pip
Arrgh! That's some but not what I'm looking for.
Pip
Thank you pip....the journals where a little overwhelming, but hung in there...roadback was interesting as well, plan to email them and obtain info where i can find a AP phys. close by. thanks for all your hard work.
My onocolgist told me chemo works like enbrel and reduces all the effects of RA, but only during the treatment.
So when you have cancer, and you are treated with the chemo, it only stops/reduces the RA for the time you are on chemo??????
Then the MTX used is only to get you to a stable point and you must be on it forever?
Ivypoe - I've got other stuff that I filed but have recently taken my filing cabinet kind of apart because I want to dump AOL. So, the really cool stuff I have is kind of in Limbo. If I can find it soon, I'll post it - but keep searching yourself too. Minocin is the brand name of the antibiotic but researchers seem to always study the generic - minocycline. I know this one study I have had the researches quoted as 'stopping it in its tracks'. Again, its not a cure - but you need to make sure it doesn't come back.
I wish LuAnn was here - she'd know the answer to a lot of these questions. I think Ivy can eventually come of MTX but I'm not sure.
Hugs,
Pip
Minocin helped me, I swear by it. THen I went to Enbrel and went onto sort of a remission for a bit. THat was my experience.
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