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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Arthritis / December 2004

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rd appt and ??'s about humira

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DCHAM - 21 Dec 2004 20:05 GMT
hi gang,

well, i knew it was coming. i've been on my beloved remicade since it came out
(along with arava), but my RA has never really been under good control. (no
other dmard worked well, either). i feel good--relatively speaking, if you know
what i mean. my pain's at about a 5 on a 1-10 scale, and i guess it's kind of
pathetic, but that is quite tolerable to me. my remicade dose has crept up over
the years and i am now at 8mg/k weight. that's a honkin' load of remicade. my
joints are still swollen and inflamed, (tho i think they look kinda good, but i
guess i have on rose-colored glasses) and my RD doesn't like them even tho i'm
happy to put up with them. soooooo. . . he/she (i have two in practice
together--both great!) want me to consider humira. i'm bummed. i loved
remicade. it was so wonderful except for the fading bit. i really have not
educated myself to humira so don't know much about it, but i'm reading up.
anyhow, have any of you failed remicade and then done well on humira? should i
make the switch?
and then there's the whole celebrex issue . . . geesh.

diane, about to lose herself in a mind-numbing game of bubbels
RoseB - 21 Dec 2004 21:04 GMT
>hi gang,
>
>well, i knew it was coming.

Shot, Diane. I am sorry to hear that. I have not been on any of the
other biologics except remicade, but my Rd thinks it is the most
effective of all three. I wish you good luck in whatever you decide.

I myself am not doing that well on remicade. I think that in my case a
bump  up would help, but the cost factor prevents that from happening.
I can not see our provincial government helping to pay for 5 vials
every six weeks.

    Rose   @}>->--
    Being educated means that rather than fearing the unknown, one seeks to understand it. RB

    Please remove "Ima" to reply.
Lee Thompson-Herbert - 22 Dec 2004 03:32 GMT
>>hi gang,
>>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>other biologics except remicade, but my Rd thinks it is the most
>effective of all three. I wish you good luck in whatever you decide.

Odd, because the head-to-head study I saw, the most common reason for
quiting Remicade was "didn't work."  The most common reason for quitting
Humira was "severe infections."  Most common reason for quitting Enbrel
was "slow fadeout."  Humira does seem to have the highest infection risk
of the three, which would argue that it's also got the most immunosupressant
action.  However, it may also depend on what dose you're taking.  Some people
aren't maintained well on the every-other-week dosage schedule, even with
MTX.  My RD and I are still fine-tuning my dose.  Right now we're trying
every 10 days, which seems to be working pretty well.  Since I've had
problems with infections before, what we don't want is to bump the dose
too high.  If this doesn't work, we'll go to once a week, but so far
every 10 days seems to be doing the job.

Enbrel never _quite_ worked for me, and I didn't get to try Remicade
because I failed both MTX and Arava (whee, watch those liver panel scores
shoot through the ceiling!).  Humira, even on the ever-other-week dosage
worked much better.  At the current dose, I'm actually finally gaining back
lost ground.  Last week, I dropped something in the shower and actually
managed to pick it up with my toes.  I haven't been able to do that in over
a year because my toes have been too clawed up.  And I've been able to
stand and walk around a lot more.  And push my wheelchair by myself for
longer stretches.  So for me at least, the Humira is the first drug we've
tried in almost 3 years that's actually _worked_.

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Lee M.Thompson-Herbert        lee@retro.com         KoX 1995, SP4
Head Muso, White Rats Morris
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"A head-on collision between Morticia Adams and Martha Stewart"

DCHAM - 22 Dec 2004 04:21 GMT
thanks, lee. that's encouraging. except about the infections.  =:-0

diane
 
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