Hello, Im new to the message board here, and i really need some advice. Im hoping someone can help me out. To make my story short, Ive had rheumatoid arthritis symptoms for about 5 years. I finally went to a Rheumy 2 weeks ago, she diagnosed me with RA . I had labs and hand exams done, all normal. so i went back yesterday and she started feeling my back, it hurt, she thinks i have spondylitis to i guess. so she starts talking about enbril and methotrexate. shes crazy and i didnt even get the chance to ask her questions. I think she figures that cuz im a nurse i should just know everything. She said call me in a week and tell me what u wanna do. I feel so pressured to start something. She was kinda pushing the enbril because that will help with AS and methotrexate will not. i did my research and the sideaffects of both seem overwhelming. I just wanna say screw it and not take anything. Id like to hear other peoples experiences on the drugs and your knowledge about these diagnoses. I know i have to take something to prevent this thing from getting worse. But im deathly afraid of new drugs and sideaffects. Id so much appreciate some advice.
You should be afraid of these drugs. But if you have been living with arthritis symptoms for 5 years you may have already experienced damage to your joints. You'll need to weight the risks of the drugs to the risks of the damage.
It also sounds like you need a new rheumy.
You'll get more responses if you post on the "rheumatoid arthritis" section.JoJo---I'm certainly no doctor or nurse but my RD started out with gradually adding more meds. He definitely didn't start me on MTX & Enbrel at the same time. We began with prednisone August, 2005, to get the inflammation down, in Sept or Oct., 2005 he added MTX, gradually increasing the dosage of MTX and decreasing prednisone. Sept, 2006, added Enbrel because the other two just weren't doing enough. As I posted on another thread, just this week the Enbrel seems to have kicked in after being on it 3 1/2 months (not an early responder here!) and I feel much better. I was under the impression that they usually don't try one of the biologics until certain you need more than MTX. Some people respond to just the pred and MTX, I think. Let us know what you end up with. Linda
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