I have also had horrible side effects. I am currently only taking Plaquenil and doxycycline (antibiotic) with some naproxen and advil. It was actually working pretty well for the summer. Now, not so much. I have a chronic migraine condition that reacts violently to almost any meds that I try. I have not tried biologics yet but I may have to try one soon !!
Best of luck to you. Hope you find something soon!

Nipper

I understand your frustration. I started out on Plaquinal and that started to affect my eye sight. Go tomorrow for another eye exam to see if the damage has gotten worse. I then went on Methotrexate and it helped with the pain but it changed my personality to where I was mad and angry all the time. Went off of that and did the Remecade infusions and that helped for awhile until it stopped working. Now I'm on Orencia and it has helped. I am still fatigued, don't sleep well at night. I get depressed about not being able to remember things at all. I try not to let it get to me, but it does. Best of luck to you in finding something that works for you.
Wendy

i went back on humira and enbrel after pneumonias, the stay at home and hospitalization type of pneumonias. i stopped the med and re-started. i had to heavy pre treat sinus crap while on both of those biologics - each a year or more.

i'm trying to understand, you stopped humira after one injec tion followed by one infection and now you are stopping enbrel after one injection followed by one infection? do these infections read as allergies to your rheumie?

the pulmomologist told me that my system would eventually acclimate and that when he read my lung infection chart it was closely tied to major lung flare ups with each change in biologic. not exactly right, i had recurrent lung infecions, in higher frequency while on mtx alone. that was the worse infection hoser for me.

what does your GP and/or rheumie say?

depot

Thanks depot. For biologics i was on humira i took 4 injections and fought the sinus crap the whole time and horrible nose ulcers, sores. Then was on a round of antibiotics took another humira injection and bammm nose sores stuffiness and sneezing. So went to rheumy appointment was started on enbrel approximately 1 to 2 weeks after antibiotic. Took my first enbrel injection last Saturday and by sunday stuffiness started then on to the sneezing and now nose sores. So now she told me to stop enbrel and i am expecting infusions. But.... omg...am i going to deal with the sinus crap. Cant we combat the sinus crap while taking the meds? Humira was working but the nose sores were unbearable. Any thoughts? ? Totally frustrated i dont want infusions but dont want pain either.

Race runner, I too now react badly to many medicines including prednisone, most narcotic pain meds and believe it or not - claritin.

In my case the main source of my RA inflammation was discovered (after a decade of mod-sev misery) and it was food allergies/sensitivities that I had developed. There is an off chance that you might be lucky/unlucky like me. To find out, get food allergy tested and avoid anything identified as a positive. If nothing else, some of your inflammation may decrease making life a little more comfortable.

Good luck in your journey

No food allergies been tested. Tried different diets no changes in pain.

Sadly each person reacts to meds etc differently...trial and error=but please hang in there snd make sure your dr keeps on finding what works for you without the bad side effetcs!

what are these nose sores like?

yes i had continuing congestion, sinus and would stay on either the enbrel or humira unless it went to pneumonia.

my rheumie had a heart to heart with me where she told me that the anti tnf were infecions goers for me. too much interruption in dosing. i don't have that with orencia but orencia sucks at stemming my disease. we are going to talk rituxan or xelanj in spring once flu season is over my rheumie says.

maybe it is the anti tnf like jen references and when you branch off you will get the medication wihout the sores? ask the doctor and then get back to us.

the Rheumia big get together conference was this month and my rheumie told me that the least for infections according to the lectures she sat through were orencia, followed by xeljanz followed by rituxan

remicaide is out (tnf and too long a shelf life in my body if i get pneumonia the doc says)

this must be horribly frustrating for you. as a fellow sufferer of infections, I commiserate with you. hang in there. your rheumie will get you on track, have faith

in the meantime can she be compassionate with pred or pain meds as a bridge?

hugs

depot

Hi buddhacat. Yes my rheume and i talked anout wegners and was tested which came back negative but it sounds like wegners is kibda like RA you can have wegners and b negative. Yes i have read on wegners that if goes untreated it can b fatal.
Depot these nose sores r painful then the longer i am on the med the worse they get. They r inside each nostril and crust over and never heal and bleed. Course the sores bleed crust over and the cycle continues. They dont go away until an antibiotic and once i go back on the meds the sores r back. They r so painful cant hardly blow my nose.
Anyone with RA have wegners? Thank u everyone for your input and will appreciate anymore input. Thanks

Enbrel caused nasty sinus with me along with respiratory infections.
Although it helped me enough to stick with it.
Wiped most the exhaustion away also. Every so many months I'd get an infection. My doctor always responded like I was the only one who had these problems. I'd love to print this out & take it to next appointment & I may just do that.
Cimzia caused asthma. Orencia is my next attempt.
It's finding what works with the least amount of nasty.
No sores though.
I'm not opting for infusions till I know how I respond to a medication first.
These are strange medications. What works for one won't for another.
One person has little to no side effects where the other gets slammed.
Wish there was a simple way of finding the right med for each of us.
I guess the good thing is we have hope. There are meds we have yet to explore.
Choosing to have faith here that the right one is out there.
Hope you find one soon that works for you.
Sammy