I have quite 3 different TNF drugs - Enbrel, Huimira, and Cimzia, because, while my feet were a LOT better, my hands still had swelling, stiffness, and pain. So, was switched or Orencia. After 3 months on Orencia, and getting a little worse, I am now on Actemra. I am giving myself injections. I am not doing the infusions, since my Rheum is a 4 hour round trip, and in winter, that can be a nasty drive at times.

These other drugs - compared to Enbrel and Humira - are almost painless.

I lost my Humira in December due to insurance problems (thank you very much.....). I first started feeling worse in about 4 weeks, then totally back to square one in 7-8 weeks.

Mkp, did you ever go off one of the tnfs and stay off a biologic for a period of time, so it had time to wear off? If so, how long until you felt the tnf wearing off (the feet it was originally helping)? Thx for the responses!

Coaltrain, you were on two shots a month with Humira right? So took a shot, missed a shot 2 weeks later, then the next one a month after the first, felt it (the pain).

I wonder if it's the equivalent of 2 weeks on enbrel since it's a weekly shot, in which case I can expect to feel lowsy come next Wednesday (tomorrow is my first shot I'm missing).

Does that make any sense whatsoever lol?!?!
Thx again!

Yes, the Humira is usually taken every other week. Enbrel once a week (which I am on now).

Looking at the info, Humira is 40mg while Enbrel is 50mg. I guess it is just a different formulation.

I asked my Rhuematologist about the basic differences between the two (he is one of the heads of an Arthritis Reseach Center) - he told me no real difference except that Humira is longer lasting which is why he goes with that first.

I've only been on Enbrel for 11 weeks, and just starting to feel a little difference. The Humira also took 3-4 months before and real effect.

I like the idea of Humira better because of half the amount of injections - in my eyes that is half the chance of an possible infection.

Neither hurt for me. The auto pens are different the way you use them.

As I said above, it took 4 weeks to start feeling the effect of not taking the Humira - so that was 2 shots missed. It was mild at first, but gradually got worse.

When I went off Enbrel, the pain didn't come back for over 2 yrs. It is back some now, not much. Go figure?!

My first biologic was Enbrel. It worked great for about 4 months, then it just stopped working. My decline was fast, could not hardly walk in the two months it took until the next Ruemy appointment. Humira worked very well with the maximum dose of MTX. My liver numbers went up, so the MTX was reduced. The Humira wasn't working well enough after that. I now take Orencia and Arava and they are working pretty good.
Lynne

I have only been off a biologic when I have been sick. One time I had to be off it for two weeks, and by that time I was starting to feel some pain,

I noticed pain and stiffness coming back a few days after my last shot. I was off of Enbrel for two weeks because I was sick. I was amazed at how much ground I lost in that short of time.

The first time I quit Humira was for surgery and that was about 4-5wks before the pain came back.

Last November when it was starting to fail the pain was breaking thru before the next dose-2wks. Then we went to weekly injections first week of Dec. By the end of Dec the pain was full blown. But I was taking the weekly injections for that month.

I've been on Enbrel since Feb but it never worked. Dr said its so similar to Humira & I probably developed the antibody so I'm changing to something else at my appt Thursday.

I'm not a chemist..2sci?? But someone told me to multiply the half-life by 5 and that will get you close to the figure.

Are you going on something else that's not a tnf-a or are you taking a break for a while?

Good luck. I know you had some rough side effects.

Emerald

I'm seeing the rheumy today and going to request going back on arava and remaining on Plaquenil. I took arava once a day, but the diarrhea was 20 times a week so we switched to a 5 pill once a week schedule. Then since the hair was falling out severely and I still had 12-15 diarrheas a week, we decided to stop arava, and at that point I had been on enbrel for several weeks. the hair didn't slow the rate of loss at all, so I decided to go to one Plaquenil a day instead 2 for about a week and no changes. Through process of elimination I know it is in fact enbrel causing it.

So going to try to go back to my original schedule before enbrel, 5 arava once a week and 2 Plaquenil a day. Hopefully quitting arava 3 weeks ago didn't cause my body to now reject it. That would NOT be good!!!

I'm just trying to get a feel for when the hair loss will finally slow and when I may feel discomfort. Being on dmards should prevent flares and such, but I just wanted a general idea for the discontinuing of enbrel. It seems by the second shot it should wear off.

Thx all!!!

Oh, side note I looked up half life etc and I thought it said multiply by 7, but I may be wrong as well as my source. My source would leave it to a 20-30 days to rid of system completely. Either way, it will be out eventually!