I’m a 44 year old woman with a 20 year history of severe non-responsive RA. Having been through all of the other biologics my rheumatologist feels it is time to move on to one of the new drugs. I have no known allergies and luckily have not had any previous serious side effects. I am currently on Arava and have just been taken off Remicade. In your clinic’s experience which drug seems to be more quickly effective or shown to be non-effective faster?

I am on NSAID, Methotrexate, Prednisone and Plaquenil for my RA. But lately I have been getting alot of small infections. My big toe, a hangnail on my thumb and ear infection. I have all three right now at the same time. It seems that any little scratch or cut I get it gets infected. Is there any thing that I can do so they will not become infected? I was going to start to use antiseptic soaps instead of just regular soap. I don’t know if that is going to work or not.

I read your response to the Humera/pregnancy question in March and found it informative. Thank you for posting it. At age 29, My RA and CD had rendered me mostly bed-ridden and constantly in and out of hospitals for about four years. Two years ago, Remicade “gave me my life back”. Prior to that, my husband and I had given up on the idea of ever starting a family. Today, my husband and I are excited to announce that we are pregnant! Our embryo is on its 22nd day post conception (using a healthy egg donor). Everything is going even better than expected! Delivery predicted around May 1, 2007. My last Remicade infussion was one week prior to IVF (4 vials/6 wks), and my last Methotexate injection was five months ago. I stopped my Celebrex three days prior to implantation. Surprisingly, I am doing very well, no complaints that Tylenol can’t take care of. I am hoping that I am one of the 80% of women who experience remission as a result of pregnancy. However, it would be a tremendous relief to me (prior to having to make the decision to use Remicade to finish out the pregnancy only if severe symptoms re-occur), TO BE AWARE OF ANY REPORTED SIDE-EFFECTS ON EMBRYONIC/FETAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE USE OF REMICADE (human or animal studies). My Rheumatologist reported to me that in fetal mice studies, Remicade did not pass the placental barrier. Have you heard any such results? Finally, I know you are a very busy professional; however, I personally applaud you for opening your heart to those of us who are in desperate need of specific information which we find close to impossible to locate.

Currently i take methotrexate but have noticed that i swell up when i take it for days after and by the end of the week i feel good on the last 2 days and it repeats. What happens is my joint areas all inflame at least twice as much as they do without it, should i not be on this medication? Second, I notice I am almost fine normally until the week before my menstral and a couple days after. It seems my menstral cycle turns me into a HUGE flair and then i have a great week or two between them. I also have allergies and the more allergy attacks to mold or things like bug spray the worse my RA gets. Any information you can give to help would be great. PS My rhummy is a training center, i see a completely different doctor each time i go in and they “all” tell me different, some say RA, some say beginning of Lupus, some say allergy poison based like pesticides etc. Help. I live in Greater new orleans area and have no place else I can afford.

I just had my first injection of Enbrel last night. So far there has not been any reactions from the drug. But about two hours after I got itchy in different parts of my body. Put he injection site is not itchy. The itchying is not bad. I don’t have any signs of a rash or hives. Most of the time just movement of my clothes is enough to stop the itching. I don’t have to scratch it. I was wondering if this could be a reaction to the Enbrel or could it all be in my head?

If my husband has been on remicade (injections every two months over the past three years) are there risks for birth defects, and if so what typs of birth defects have been documented?