Hi Guys,
I'm on a bit of a downer and want to vent my frustration somewhere, I
am currently taking 50mg of Enbrel per week and was on diclofenac (an
anti inflammatory) every day. Basically the diclofenac kept me going
until two weeks ago when i had intrnal bleeding in my stomach, this was
caused by the diclofenac so now i have been taken off it.
The enbrel is not working and at present i cannot walk or move very
well, i've been signed off work, I had a shot of kenalog and that gave
me some slight relief, anyway my blood results show that the ra is mega
active so i have to go to hospital next week to have three lots of
methyl prednisone via IV. Has anyone had this before? i am hoping it
will calm down the inflammaton sufficiently, but at the moment am so
fed up.
I am not sure what options i will have if the enbrel does not take soon, so far i have had 7 shots.
Anyway sorry for the rant, just wanted to vent.
x
Lorna,
I don't know about methyl prednisone, but just taking the oral
prednisone worked right away when I had my first flare. I started
with about 16, then went down gradually to 10. I have been on
10mg for a year or more, and am starting to decrease it again, now I'm
at 8. Still have the morning stiffness and puffiness, but not as
badly as I felt the first time he started to decrease me.
Probably with the combos of MTX and remicade, it is helping. Are
you on any other meds except the enbrel?
Lorna, this will probably help you immensely. Hopefully, they can try another biologic in place. I am not having any results with Enbrel either. But there are quite a few out there now. Ask them what they are going to try next.
I have heard of them giving blood transfusions and high doses of antibiotics in extreme cases like yours. Hopefully, they get the inflammation down and your whole body will settle down just like happens with many us who temporarily go on the med packs of prednisone. When they use those, it is usually enough to get the flare back under control and then they can continue with gentler treatments. You are not the first one here to have poor results from your medications.
But it's awfully tough.