Hi Annie,
Will try to answer some of your questions although I have not taken
kineret - just listened to all the comments and done some research.

1.  I personally don't know anyone on kineret.  The person I can think of
who lasted the longest and seems to me it worked on for a bit was KJ as I
recall. In the research clinic I attend they have had several people on
kineret.  Only 2 people it worked on but one of those people went into
medical remission.  The other lady had some decent results on it. The rest
it did basically nothing by the sounds of it. My rd didn't give me any hope
of it working - bypassed it altogether.  Our provincial pharmaceutical
review committee denied payment for it from the provincial insurance company
saying the efficacy wasn't there especially compared to what else was on the
market (having said that they are frequently wrong!!!!)

2.  I have heard via other people that the hurt does go away with icing,
warming the med to room temperature etc.  I guess my opinon would be if it
worked it would be worth the bit of pain in a day.  If it would work. The
self injector is going to make things hurt more because you can't control
how fast it goes in (according to my np)

3.  The website information says it works in about 12 weeks for most people.
Again as per information from #1 I was told this was about right - could be
longer for some people.

4.  Can't help you with this (I am from Canada and so things are different).

5.  I can help a bit here.  My soapbox. These pharmaceutical companies spend
huge amounts of money developing some of these meds and lots of years.
Since my husband also buys the stocks I can tell you that many of the meds
they have to drop due to problems, too many things in the pipelines etc.
even after spending masses of money.  The stock investors take chances (yup
that would be us) and in a lot of cases they don't pan out.  If a med does
make it the stock investors can make money and do.  That keeps them
investing basically in chances and research.  In the case of kineret there
is a limited market.  They arrived at the same time as enbrel, and remicade
basically and were not as "successful" if you can say that.  Very few on
this newsgroup were on it or had great long term relations with it.  Since
then humira (much more user friendly at once a week), orencia and rituxan
have joined the scene - more choices, smaller field of people to draw from.
It really hasn't been around for an age either.  All of these meds are still
in infancy compared to the cheaper meds such as mtx, sulfazalazine etc.  The
price should still be hitting about the same price range as remicade or
enbrel.  Kineret is a bit newer than the other two.  All these keep the
price high - bet they haven't paid off their development costs on that one
yet.  However as consumers this is a choice some of us need on the market
because as we know not everything works on everyone.  This med works
differently than the tnf receptors - it works on the interleukin 1 receptor
instead of the tnf receptors.  Maybe that targets certain kinds of RA or
inflammatory diseases.  Who knows right now.  Just know we need everything
we can at our disposal sometimes.

6. yup - you could take lessons from some of us "veteran" winers and wimps.
Oh sorry mispell - whiners and whimpers.  Personally I think if you could
post your whines more often, complain more often (you just don't do that
enough) and stamp and holler a few more times we could probably put you into
our exclusive club.  You are just too stoic Annie.

I hope things work for you.  I know it has worked for a few but it is kind
of an inconvenient med (the daily shot) and the efficacy doesn't seem to
have been there. However for the few apparently it has been a miracle.  I
think I have my rd convinced if rituxan doesn't work we should give it a try
on me - if it doesn't work for so many well the odds are there it might work
for me.  The main side effect by the way is the telltale rash at week????.
Everyone seems to get it and it is wicked.  Then it goes away and doesn't
come back.

If any questions google KJ and Kineret.  Seems to me she was one of the
better ones on it and goodness knows she tried everything for a long time.
She is now on Orencia and far as I know doing well.

Whine away - we understand.  Just get better at that whining!  You don't do
it enough.

Gentle hugs,
Kelly

Here is KJ's diary of kineret - very hopeful.

http://arthritisinsight.com/community/stories/tina4.html

Kelly