Hi Janet,
I was on Enbrel for at least two years after I went back on it, maybe longer. My memory is the worst, but I am positive it was at least the 2 years. Right after the brief "vacation" on Humira, the bump I got when I went back on Enbrel was significant--it worked just about as well as it did when I first started taking it. That was a HUGE improvement over how it was working just one month earlier, as it had really become ineffective when I made the switch to Humira. After that initial burst, it leveled off and continued to work quite well until the last three months I was on it. For those three months, the Enbrel really dropped off again, leaving me feeling progressively worse over the last three months. By the end, it really was doing nothing, and I hurt as badly as I did before I started taking the biologics.
Luckily, I was one of those people for whom Remicade seemed to work almost magically the very first day I started taking it. And, if anything, it as been working even better in the months following that first infusion. My next one is scheduled for next Monday, and I am ready for it. Over the past 2 days, I have felt the achiness creeping back in, and I've had to take a celebrex for the first time in weeks. I think the infusion date might be seven weeks after my last one, which means if I had simply made my appointment the standard six weeks apart, I wouldn't even have had this minor feeling that the Remicade was wearing out. Lesson learned for next time!
Good luck with whatever decision you make.
Brad
