Guest guest Posted November 3, 2003 Report Share Posted November 3, 2003 Welcome Toni. Sorry for your reasons for finding us, but glad you did. It's hard for others to understand what we go through. I tell people to go outside and get a bunch of rocks. Put them in their shoes and then try living a normal life with them there. One lifetime friend of mine is having trouble with OA of her knee. She now has just a little clue of what it's like and she is always saying she doesn't know how I've dealt with it for over 25 years and can still smile. Maybe it would help if your husband went to to the doctor with you. Enbrel is the first drug in a long history of drugs that I've tried, that actually helped. Not only has it helped, it's allowed me to work part time. I work for a temp service, which is great for people with RA since I can say no to working if I don't feel I can do it. I hope you have good luck with Enbrel. For me it worked right away. At times I swore there was nothing but water in the injection, but in most cases, I got relief. a > Hello, > > My name is Toni. I am 38 yrs old and was diagonised with RA, OA and fibro > almost two years ago. I am the mother of two teenager daughters and was a > very > busy fulltime career mom before all this happened. > > I started on Arava, Bextra, pred, flexeril, sonata and a bunch of other meds. > During that time I changed Family docs, amd Rheummys. > > My first Rheummy moved away. My new doc is great. > > The Arava worked for about a year and them just stopped. I was in terrible > shape and had no rheummy to go to. My internist just keep upping the steriods > hoping the new rheummy would arrive soome to help me. > > New doc did a lot of things my old one didn't do. He first stopped the Arava > and added MTX. I first started on pills. 3 pills a week. It make me so sick > I couldn't even work. After three weeks of being sick as a dog he changed me > to injections. I get nauseated, dizzy, have diarrhea and have headaches right > after the injectionbut nothing nearly as bad as taking the pills. > > After being out of control for almost two months he made the decision to add > Embrel. I have alony been on it one week. So far so good. I have far more > energy the day after my injection and far less pain for that day too. Then it > all comes back with a vengence. He has also upped my Mtx. to 17.5mg a week > over a period of 3 weeks. I discovered quite by accident that I have less > nausea if I inject into my thigh instead of my stomach. I have decided that > my > stomach is for Embrel and thighs for Mtx. > > I found the the people at Embrel to be great and very supportative. They sent > me sharps containers for home and one for travel, reminder stickers, frig > magnet, reading materials, video tape, a tool for uncapping vials and syringes > and travel cooler. They even sent this nice placemat to use when giving you > shots to keep you organized. > > My hubby and family are having a hard time understanding. I think the > children have a better grasp than hubby. He thought at first I was just being > lazy. > Until he had to pick me up out of bed a few days cause I was too dizzy to > walk to bathroom. Then when he saw the huge bruises and skin teats from > normal > simple tasks I think his thoughts changed. > > My current meds are:embrel, MTX 17.5mg, bextra, prednisone 15 mg, flexeril, > prozac, prevacid, folic acid and stuff for sleep and vitamins. > > I have found I need 2-5 mg of folic acid a day to keep the nausea at bay. I > take 2 mg daily, except for the day before my MTX, the day of and the day > after I take 5 mg. > > I also drink mint tea to help and evening primrose oil in hopes to get off > the prednisone. > > I look forward to hearing from others. > > Toni in Texas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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