Rheumatology appt tomorrow

wow, the best of wishes to you.

so are these like really bad infection?  bad enough to stop Enbrel?

i had bouts of strep, thrush, and skin infections while on Enbrel but remained on it till i found it did really nothing for the RA after almost 2 years.

the Humira has caused blood dyscrasias in me and just recently a pneumonia...but it is helping the RA finally.

would you be able to do Kinaret and MTX? not sure if that's a combo. what about Imuran?

how long have you been on enbrel again?

well, i hope all goes OK & the right decisions are made.

erin

i'll start with a funny story 1st.  in old Greek meaning, dyscrasia means "foul temperement of the 4 humors"  hah...so if i were alive way back when they'd most likely blood-let me or leach me to excise the bad tempers. lol

what happenned as result of the RA & all of the meds is that it caused a significant lowering of my WBC's (immunocompromised), and something that is called "leukopenia" or leukocytosis which basically is a high marked leukocyte count.  (this is why close blood monitoring is mandatory while on TNFs and DMARDs).  is it leukemia yet? nah, but it needs to be watched and my symptoms in check and blood levels very strict.  i go pretty much every week for my CBC draw (if i feel like crap i play hookie).

but a dyscrasia in general is any hematological disease.

i try not to think about it too much...serves no sense to.  i'de rather have a few years of great than a whole lifetime of nothing.

have a good night.

Thanks for the encouragement Curley.  As long as I find a drug that works for me, I don't really care much the form it comes in; injection for me has become routine.  I think it helps that me and my husband were in fertility tx to conceive our twin daughters and I had to do follistim injections for a while (which are daily for the first few days of your cycle). 

Erin, no wonder blood dyscrasias sounds like such an evil thing--it is.  Hopefully, it won't evolve into leukemia for you; I understand now why you have to have weekly monitoring.  I suppose you have to weight the costs and benefits of every type of tx versus the actual condition.  From previous posts, I've learned that your RA is out of control, and I'm sure you're in a lot of pain.  In your situation, it may very well be of more benefit to continue with the humira with close monitoring, especially since it seems to be working for you right now.  My problems sound a lot less serious than your's.  I would probably still be on NSAIDS if I could take them (can't because of significant GI issues).

Elcamino

that's such a cool name.  do you have an ELCAMINO car?

speaking of evil bloodletting, off to the docs office for bloodwork in a few minutes.  luckily i'm able to walk pretty darn good today...so it'll be enjoyable.

yeah, just this past month the RA seems to have "shut up" LOL. the joint pain is still really bad, but at least i'm not bedridden & on strict bedrest anymore.  it is still active and severe but in my book? that doesn't matter as long as i can go outside and walk some.

hey, did you ever get a colonoscopy?  you've mentioned GI problems a lot.  and if a person has RA or any AI disease, sometimes a thing like UC or Crohns can occur too. (unfortunatley i make a good example of that! LOL) for years i said, "well, at least i don't have any gut problems."  the bowel Gods laughed i suppose.

so "el" i truly TRULY wish you a good combo of meds to get things in check.  when you feel ok to write after your appointment let us know what happenned.

like Duck says, "I've got everything crossed for ya!"

erin