new to group and need information

August 28, 2004

Hi everyone! I am so happy to have found this message board. I was

diagnosed with RA about 7 years ago...it was very mild. Then I had

my first baby and post partum, the flairs began...whew..I got

agressive quick. I since have been up and down with prednisone and

used embrel once I was forced to quit breastfeeding my baby. The

enbrel worked fine and I was able to go down to 3 mg of prednisone

before my next planned pregnancy. (I know I should have quit while

I was ahead with one perfect baby). The RA DID NOT go into

remission and I took 10 mg of prednisone my entire pregnancy (and

was casted on my left ankle the last 2 1/2 months of pregnancy.)

When I stopped nursing my baby, I tried enbrel but it never really

got the flairs under control. I've been taking humira injections

weekly along with 10mg of the dreaded prednisone. Sorry about the

long history, but here is where I am needing advice; I've started

gettign red spots (rash) all over my body from the humira. My

rheumy prescrbed me zyrtec to control the rash and also did blood

test. My levels have gone down alot so we decided to try enbrel

again (start off with the standard 2 injections a week to see if

that works and if not, bump it up to 3 injections). Does anyone

have experience with going back and forth from enbrel to humira? I

am so nervous about the pain starting back up and having to jump

back up on prednisone. I am now on 8mg of prednisone but he wants

me to taper very slow since I've been at the same dose for so long

(throughout my pregnancy and nursing and now, baby is 1 year old).

I did feel great on Enbrel before my second pregnancy but I fear

that with each pregnancy my RA got more and more severe. (guess I

will never have that girl....lol). Anyway, sorry about the long

post, wanted to share alittle history to see if anyone had any

advice? Thanks and I look forward to learing more.

Also, I wanted to mention that I have gained about 22 lbs in the

last 2 months, which is when the humira started working (along with

the rash). Anyone else notice anything like this? (that would

definatly help me feel good about switching back to enbel)

DeeDee

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