Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...

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achymom 03/29/2011

Hi again,

MTX and plaquenil have gotten things largely under control, but due to ongoing synovitis in my wrist (and some joint deformation noted on an MRI last month) my rheumy is recommending I try a biologic to see if we can get my wrist under control.

I posted about this a few weeks ago (surprised by the MRI findings as the wrist really doesn't hurt), but I'm going back to see her next week, and am leaning towards giving one of them a shot. She told me she doesn't really care which one I'm on. Which is good and bad, I guess. Happy that I get to weigh in, but really not sure how to make the decision. I've looked at injection schedules, side effects that are listed (they all seem to be equally awful), how long they've been in existence etc., but I don't really know where to land. I can find lots of posts on remicade, enbrel and humira, but not a lot at all on cimzia or simponi.

Did any of you pick your own biologic? I know from other posts that some of you had to run through them in a certain order due to insurance. If that wasn't the case, how did you decide?

thanks - achymom

deleted_user 03/29/2011

I had to try a variety of oral medications for a year before starting Enbrel. My doctor made the choice, but he did give me info on Humira and said if the Enbrel didn't work we would try that next. I expected a big run-around from the insurance company, but I got my Enbrel in 2 weeks and qualified for the Enbrel support program which picks up the difference that insurance doesn't pay so my $1400 supply for the month cost me $0.00 which makes me very thankful.

deleted_user 03/29/2011

When I first started biologics I had the best insurance - I could basically take anything. I picked Enbrel, rheumy said Enbrel, humira or remicade - I was deathly afraid of the infusions (and didn't want to lose time out of work) so I opted for Enbrel. Then I went to Humira, and after that failed (enter now new rheumy AND new insurance) - new rheumy said the only options were infusions - Actemra, Rituxan or Orencia. Ins co I have now said NO to Orencia, that I had to use Remicade , fail that for 3 months THEN they'd "consider" the Orencia - rheumy went to bat for me and basically told them they didn't know what they were talking about - they finally backed down and approved Orencia and that's where I am now, along with the MTX and pred.

deleted_user 03/29/2011

My rheumy was the one who decided, based on my liver issues. I started on Enbrel, but had a bad reaction. I was on Kineret for 5 years, which clears through the kidneys and didn't give me any problems. Sadly, the DMARDS I had in combination did.

I am now on Rituxan, which is not supposed to affect the liver, although my enzymes went sky high after the infusion. But it might not have been that which caused it. I know this time my liver specialist and I are going to monitor the liver very closely before and after the infusions. Even if my enzymes spike, but recover, we are going to consider it all good.

daizy8 03/29/2011

I was given the choice of Humira or Enbrel by my RA doc. He said the Embrel was a once a week injection and the Humira was every 2 weeks. He seemed to lean towards the Humira so that is the one I choose. I have been on it since November. Seems to be working fine.

Dontcha hate it when the insurance companies are the ones to make decisions like this for us? Grrrrrrr!

Good luck on your decision.

deleted_user 03/30/2011

It was my doc that suggested that I try Humira. My mtx wasn't working by itself. I looked it up and was amazed at all the side effects. I figured I'd try it cuz I hated waking up every day with swollen fingers evey day. So far so good. I'm hoping that the company (Humira) will pick up some of the tab so I can keep using it!

deleted_user 03/30/2011

My Dr put me on Cimzia about a month ago. His reasoning is that I have had a lot of drug allergies and he felt that Cimzia had the least amount of chemicals in it that I could react to. So far so good no reactions and it's working. Feeling better by the day.

Kelxx

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