I've had very short remission s... I guess you would call them.... but I'm now on plaquenil and Humira and feel better than ever. I was off all meds for a brief while last spring but that was short lived and it was bc I of illness and a flare hit me full force.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope you start on a good course.

I hope you continue to have great results.

Congrats. It's always nice to hear that someone is doing better or good with this stuff. It must feel great not having to take a boatload of meds.

When I stopped Enbrel and methotrexate the first time, I stayed in remission almost 2 years. The last 3months of the two years, I knew the gig was up.

I restarted Enbrel and when I had to quit (liver enzymes), I remained in remission for about 9 months. I'm now hurting again and need to find a new drug to take to suppress this RA.

I hope you get plenty of time to allow your body to enjoy being drug free!

@Sunvalley, 2leftfeet, pw39 & bcatz...

Thanks for the well wishes guys I appreciate it!. Good luck to you all as well.

Bcatz, it's good to know (depending on how you look at it I guess) that remission "can" come back. NOT that, that's good but it's just good info to know that if I start feeling some "twinges" I'll be on high alert for a while until we can rule out that it's coming back again.

I think dropping the 20lbs & eating clean for a while really helped. But who knows but it's just timing & genetics?

I have never been in remission without strong drugs. I am kind of envious of someone who can get off all meds.

When I was on my first biologic I was able to take up bicycling and really got into it - up to 35 km riding a day. Then I lost 80 lbs. I was eating incredbily well.

Then mthx failed - so I went onto Sulfasalazine, which I had to stop suddenly, as I became very allergic to it. About the 5th day after I stopped it, I had such bad flares I could not lift the blanket off my bed, or dress myself. So I had to go back on prednisone till Rituxan started to work.

I don't think I could have been doing more to take care of my health at that time when the DMARDS failed.

Well, great for you Oceans! I hope a few people can go into a natural remission. Sigh!

@MarleneJ

Hey Marlene, sorry to hear about that & just an FYI to everyone my intentions for that post was NOT in anyway to make anyone feel bad or even worst brag. But I'm hoping by adding in as much info as possible from everyone who contributes a lot of questions can be answered or at least bring people comfort or make people alert.

Wow! So you were pretty much well in tuned, physically & taking care of yourself so that obviously wasn't the culprit the contributed to any DMARD failure.

What's funny errrr or should I say sucks, as soon as I wrote that. The very same night, it was pretty cold & I felt some "old feelings" again. I panicked so I took a 2.5mg of MTX just in case. I do lift weights & I would say heavy for my size so maybe I'm experiencing some inflammation in the muscles & joints from that who knows?

I always tend to test my ring & or watch to see how they fit. If they're loosey goosey & my joints aren't "warm" then I'm leaning towards weight lifting fatigue at my age for sure.

If I start to notice warm wrist or finger joints then i'll probably freak out a bit.

hey you are huffing good weights and dmard free, maybe you just have a nice mild RA and you are in heaven's remission. kudos to you

i go off methotrexate for lung infections - usually 2 months. i have to. no freakin' choice. i usually notice nothing different the first month. this encourages me to raise a toast with cognac, and raise all hell, the second month I scream.

but you, you could just be a lucky healthy guy - like buddha said - i think the same - why mico analyze it or watch it, just go enjoy - congratulations on losing weight. happy weights or rather stop over hauling "for your age" (kidding) - yeah if you are in love with the gym it can always be DOMS delayed onset muscle soreness. sure why not.

what is your blood work like for most of the standard bearers? and MRI's of any joint lately? do you have deviations? do you have any limitations or restrictions?

depot

@buddhacat
Thanks best wishes to you as well! You know I got to the point where I felt like I could live with about 95% & not being able to do my social drinking as much as I would like. So I like your attitude about being on it for 8yrs & basically being able to do most of what you like or want.

@depotblu,

Unfortunately I never remember to get a copy of my blood work but from what my Rheumy states i've been in all normal ranges for all area's. My liver enzymes creep up a big depending on how much I drink or if I'm taking pain medications but it's rare.

As I'm typing this I do notice a few little tweaks here & there, this reminds me of the last time I had the "flu", I thought I was regressing & the disease was coming back. But it was a flare up that lasted about a week & 1/2.

you can't toss em back buddy if you are on methotrexate.

:)

pick up some bottled water :)

depot