Is there anyone else out there who is only taking Remicade-- no dmards with it? that would be good. currently taking rem, mtx & prednisone. Just rem would be better.
I thought it was great too until my RD told me Avava and mtx keeps you from making antibodies to the Remicade. However, he said he was willing to keep it the same as long as it lasts. I don't get steriods before my infusion either, as KT297 says is neccessary. I can see from the lack of posts that there aren't many like me. That doesn't give me much hope of this working!
I don't know about Remicade, but I have been taking Humira for about a year without DMARDS and it is working well so far. I think I read somewhere that Humira is less likely to stimulate antibodies, compared to the other biologics...not sure of that though.
Alan
One of the 5.5 years I was on remicade, it was without any other dmards. Remicade, and Humira, and Enbrel were all tested with MTX.
All worked better with MTX than alone. I switched to arava from mtx but with a years gap. I felt so much better off mtx it took some 'arm twisting' to get me to add another dmard. It was a coice of uping remicade another 100mg or adding a dmard to make it last the whole 8 weeks.