Question
For three years I took Embrel with much sucess, but it is too expensive for me to pay. My doctor put me on remicade and my insurance will pay the whole price. I have been on it for ten months and I feel terrible. Two weeks ago they upped the dose and I have more pain and swelling than ever. I can not get through the day without taking pain killers. Two days after I got the remicade I had such swelling and pain that they gave me a steroid shot. Two more days they put me on prednisone and I had no relief. I refuse to take remicade again, what would you suggest I do?
Answer
Although both Remicade and Enbrel are TNF inhibitors, there are many patients that respond to or tolerate one drug but not the other. The obvious thing to do from a treatment perspective is to go back on Enbrel, but I realize that this may be impossible because of the insurance issue.
