On becoming a tomato... | Arthritis Information

 

Well, I haven't posted much lately.  I've been busy preparing for a concert last saturday in San Francisco with the mandolin orchestra and this coming Sunday in Palo Alto.  It was an awsome experience as always...always fun to play concerts in San Francisco.  I've also been busy dealing with the "tomato" mentioned in the title.  I've been on Enbrel and Arava for 6 months now.  Starting about 2 months ago I developed a rather nasty anal rash and some rectal bleeding.  I had a colonoscopy which showed no signs of colinitis, thank goodness!  Any way to make a long story shorter, I stopped the Arava which had no impact, except that shortly after an Enbrel injection I rather rapidly over a couple of days developed and allergic reaction rash that covered about 80% of my body, not necessarily related to the earlier problem.  I had to stop the Enbrel and started 2 days ago a 10 day Predisone prescription to try to stop the allergic reaction.  The reaction is down to about 30% of its maximun extent so the pred is working well.  However, it hasn't touched the original rash which has persisted for 2 months now.  My RD wants the rash cleared up completely before starting RD meds so I'm off to the dermatologist again next week  ( 10 doctor visits in 2 months so far...and a colonoscopy!)  Then I will probably start Orencia or Remicade (yuck...I prefer the injections and Enbrel was working extraordinarly well.)  The RA symptoms started back with a vengeance when I stopped the Enbrel but the pred totally shut down the RA symptoms so I'm on a short RA holiday...for a few more days.

Wow hope that clears up for you soon! Sorry you have to change medicines when you thought you had something that worked for you and you didn't mind. Hope you find even better relief with the new drugs! Keep us posted. Enjoy your concert! Hi Alan, sure am glad to see you posting but not glad about the med. reactions.  I've been off all my RA drugs for about 11 weeks due to several infections and like you I'm flaring.  Have they biopsied the rash or done a scraping?  That might help with a clearer diagnosis. Did the rectal issues go away after you stopped Enbrel? Not good Alan.

I tried reducing my meds once as I was feeling pretty good.
Only took about a week for the RA to let me know that it was still my friend...

I could have picked a better friend but this one seems really attached to me for some reason.
hello Alan.. Thanks for your replies.  They did one skin biopsy which was consistent with an allergic reation and will probably do another in the "problem area" next week, if it persists.  He also did a scraping for a fungal infection test which was negative. I still have some bleeding which apparently is from a small fissure that isn't healing.  The GI doctor doesn't think it's related to the rash but the timing sure is suspicious.  I feel pretty good today but start tapering the pred slowly tomorrow.  I want to get off of it as quickly as I can.  It should get me through the concert Sunday.  I'm going to record it so I'll try to post a couple of the songs next week. Hi Alan,  I'm so sorry to hear about your having to go off your RA meds but I hope that it is successful in helping you heal. That's an awful place to hurt! Have you been given good suggestions for an effective ointment? Sure, we usually have two concerts per year in San Francisco.  The one last week was near Van Ness and Sacramento at the Old Presbyterian Church.  We practice in Noe Valley.  I also live about an hour away in Sunnyvale.

Alan


Couldn't resist...here's a picture from last year's concert in Berkeley.

I'm so happy your fingers let you still do this amazing skill and hope they always do! Yikes, Alan! Hopefully you'll put all these troubles behind you soon.
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