Diary of a wimp on Enbrel!

[ellieh]

Jab 3 last night, all ok. I must say the injections seem far easier to me than the MTX ones, the hardest bit is separating one packet from another (they come in sets of 2)
No side effects at all, bled a bit last night but only cause I'm getting blasé and didn't press long enough after removing the needle 
No real results to report though  I was hoping for amazing results immediately like I had when I started MTX but then again my p was so much worse then than it is now. Still, early days, another 21 jabs to go before derm review.

[Pieman]

headache after a little prick? thought that was the other way round

i've noticed when i had mantoux tests for tb and blood injection sites do develop p there
but do tend to dissapear after a while..maybe skin trauma causing the koebner phenomenon

yip..don't expect miricles..i'm sure the results will appear in time

[babyblue]

Ellie,

Glad no side effects but wish at this stage you saw some improvement.  We're all impatient when it comes to new treatments.  You're doing brilliantly, so far so good - no ill effects to speak of so hopefully pretty soon will notice those positive changes ... fingers crossed for you still 

Hugs & thanks for posting updates !

BB

[ellieh]

Things still plodding on, jab 4 due tomorrow. I'm still feeling surprisingly well after these injections but no change at all to the p yet. One strange thing is this morning I have a slight site reaction appeared from Thursday evening, not raised or anything but red and very itchy, and the p patch closest has gone haywire! Strange that it's taken it 2.5 days to appear, not sure if it could be because that one bled a bit or possibly the waist of my trousers rubbing it. Will be interesting to see what tomorrows dose does.

[ellieh]

Feeling a bit disappointed tonight, I've now got the same red itchy area on the site before so two lovely bits and all the p on my stomach is going crazy  :'(
I know this is a frequent side effect and not serious or anything, also supposedly it wears off after a month or so but I was starting to believe I wouldn't get any side effects at all, and the fact that there is no change at all in my p yet either is starting to get me down. Not looking forward to injecting again tomorrow  :'(

[caieser]

ellieh

After many months not being on I forgot how useful this place was.  I too have started enbrel and having the red itchy reaction after injecting.  I think my ability is rather poor as seem to go really red, itchy and swollen before slightly bruising which I think must be my stoopidness  I have my mum doing the injections (shes a nurse, well thats the excuse anyway).  Are you noticing any change.  Maybe I was being silly after ten years of "new" treatments but was expecting something almost godly to happen.  My scalp has improved and notice some of my patches are slightly flatter.  I only have 7 weeks left before a review and worried that my score won't have improved enough to stay on it.  Twelve weeks does seem so quick. 

[ellieh]

ellieh

After many months not being on I forgot how useful this place was.  I too have started enbrel and having the red itchy reaction after injecting.  I think my ability is rather poor as seem to go really red, itchy and swollen before slightly bruising which I think must be my stoopidness  I have my mum doing the injections (shes a nurse, well thats the excuse anyway).  Are you noticing any change.  Maybe I was being silly after ten years of "new" treatments but was expecting something almost godly to happen.  My scalp has improved and notice some of my patches are slightly flatter.  I only have 7 weeks left before a review and worried that my score won't have improved enough to stay on it.  Twelve weeks does seem so quick. 

Hi there, sorry to hear you have the same reactions but also glad it's not just me  It's definitely the strength of the drug rather than injection technique, I never had anything like this with the MTX and that was far worse to inject I found. I've seen no change of yet but then I'm only on week 2, the derm didn't give me any idea of when to expect to see improvement and I was expecting a miracle but I know many of these treatments they say it does take a long time. Hope it starts to kick in more for you soon, let us know how you get on 

[Pieman]

keep it up ellie, wishing the enbrel kicks in to make a diff..sooner rather than later

[ellieh]

Well did jab 4 this morning ok, except it's half term here this week and my 4 year old daughter insisted on watching me do it and kept saying 'gosh doesn't that hurt' while I was busy gritting my teeth and saying 'of course not'  Honestly, this child isn't squeemish at all!
As I've got a couple of enormous site reactions come up yesterday I went up to the derms to see if I could see someone. Spot of luck, the male derm nurse was on duty so I grabbed him and marched him into his office to show him at which point he put me on the appt list! Had to hang around a couple of hours but got to see the same derm as last time who was very sympathetic, said 'oh dear, you're one of the unlucky ones' and has told me to leave the injections out of the fridge a bit longer beforehand and prescribed yet another steroid cream to put on reactions for 10 days. She also had a look at all the p and is very pleased that the Enbrel does seem to be controlling the MTX withdrawl rebound. Also she said it takes an average of 6 weeks to start to see improvement in skin on this drug so plenty of time to go yet.
All in all a happier bunny now than I was last night and this morning, now off to cover my spare tyre in steroids again 

[riaY]

So glad you're feeling more positive ((((((( ))))))) Good luck