Remicade questions... | Arthritis Information

Hi all. I haven't posted in a while, but I have been reading on the side. My oldest son has been quite ill for the past several months, so unfortunately I haven't had much time to interact here.

I switched rheumatologists in February, and I am so glad I did. My new rheumy has done more for me in the past couple months than the one who diagnosed me and had been treating me for the past two years. At my appointment last week, I talked to my new doc about switching to Remicade from Enbrel, and he was agreeable to it. They are verifying my insurance regarding coverage and I am waiting to hear back as to when I will start. The doctor didn't mention anything about stopping Enbrel to get ready to start Remicade, but it seems to me I've read somewhere that you need to be off of one for a period of time before starting the infusions. Does anyone know about this? If anyone has any thing else to add regarding Remicade I would be grateful for the feedback.

GM, I hope your son's illness passes quickly and he gets back to being 100%.

I'm glad this new RD is giving you the attention you deserve. :) I don't have any experience with Remicade, but I did deal with Enbrel. I stopped taking Enbrel after a little over a year because of side effects and was switched to Humira. I think I started Humira about 2 weeks after Enbrel? It may have been longer, with everything we've had going on lately I can't be sure. I would think you'd need to wait a short period before starting, but only your doc can answer that one. Hopefully someone here who has had experience with Rem can provide more insight for ya.