Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives Anti TNF and other biological medications Enbrel..How quickly can I feel results?

I started Enbrel 4 week ago, and I seem to have more pain than ever. I heard so many people say they felt relief within days.. Does this mean it is not going to work for me.. and how long should I stay on it.. I only have a one month free trial, it will be very costly after that.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
MB

I've been on Enbrel for nearly two years. Everyone is different but I noticed improvements after 6 wks. Enbrel certainly helps, but even after being on Enbrel occasionally I still get nice flare-ups..

Good luck with this treatment. It should help, give it time. Are you on the 25mg syringes or the 50mg?

Regards,

-cwpete...

cwpete

Thanks for responding.. I am on 50 mg.. What improvements did you notice after 6 weeks. My knees seem to be getting much worse, I just started using a cane, it helps a little.
I just pray for some relief soon.
Thanks again,
MB

Hi Nelly, I started Dec. 1st. I had my 4th shot last night. I have to say I have not felt much relief either. I hear that it could take up to 8 weeks.. We have having a lot of cold nasty weather here in Chicagoland and that will get me hurting pretty bad. I don't know what to think myself. I am a bit bummed I thought I would be feeling great by now too. And I caught a bad cold today with a doosey of a cold sore on my lip ( pretty )and I don't know if this is someting I should call my Doc. about or not. Did they tell you when to be concerned about cold's and flu's Sorry I don't have any better news for you I am just as stumped.

Nelly,

My symptoms are mostly in my back. I also get iritis flare-ups in my left eye affect my vision there. It was a slow & gradual easing of the pain and inflammation. On Enbrel, I'd quantify a 60 to 70% reduction in overall symptoms. It is enough to make a person darn near whole again, but there are side effects.

I am usually afflicted with a mild cold and I developed what was a constant nasal congestion as if I had allergies all of the sudden. This stuff weakens a person's immune system so that the immune system does not attack itself quite as much. It is effective, but it does have side-effects, pay attention to any sort of spike in flu-like symptoms. You doctor should instruct you to stop Enbrel if you have an infection or if you get sick.

So, I find myself walking the delicate tightrope of trying to balance my AS symptoms with the cold / flu-like side effects of the TNF inhibitor I was on. Having said all this, I'd still not give it up. I'm trying to use a Low-starch diet to improve my situation some and hopefully take less Enbrel. I am always going to keep some around. I've got to.

Regards,

-cwpete...

my name is LeAnn I have been on enbrel for about four and half years i take the 25mg twice a week it was definatly slow starter but after about 3 months i was able to return to work and felt alive again dont get me wrong as we all know there is still pain but boy it was copable now as i said its been 4 yrs and im now having more pain so i'll be seeing if they can up my shots or not.. with the shots thou i also take 800ibeph and hydrocodine but as we know i much rather have quality than quanity when cames to living

I started Enbrel 9 weeks ago and I started to see improvement about 5-6 weeks in. I still got a good flare up about a week ago though. The relief I have been feeling is overall.....less little hurts in fingers and hips and even knees...also a long time pain in the feet has gone away for the most part. If you can, I would stick with it. Goos luck!

Well, of course we all respond differently but my improvement with Enbrel was almost immediate. It was a godsend for my fatigue & spinal pain.

Unfortunately, it kind of started to give out on me after about 1-1/2 years so I switched to Humira. It took me MUCH longer to notice improvement with Humira, and while it does definitely help many issues for me now (finally), it's still not quite as good on the fatigue factor for me like Enbrel was.

I've been told by the 2 rheumatologists that I have been on biologics under that it can take as long as 12 weeks to get the full effect from the drug.

And it took about that long with Humira for me. Not so with Enbrel. And like the others here, there are still flare ups & bad days. But definitely fewer of them than there used to be.

Nelly,
I goning to keep on going. I have 17 weeks in my fridge right now and after I saw the insurance portion of the invoice over 4K for 12 shots I could never let that go to waste...LOL Good luck I hope it works soon for both of us.. Let's keep in touch since we started at the same time it would be cool to swap notes.

I tried enbrel for about 6 months. I didn't have any sucess with it. I'm not sure if it was because I kept getting sick and had to stop taking it. When I first was diagnosed with bronchotis my Rhuemy kept me on the enbrel. When the first antibotic didn't work they took me off the enbrel tell I got over the cold and it took me 3 more antibotics and over two months to get over it. So I'm not sure if stoping the enbrel for that time frame and anything to do with it not working for me.

I have a freind who is on Enbrel and has been for the past 18mths and it has worked wonders for her. If I recall it took about 2 months for her to really notice that it was working for her.

So hang in their it's diffrent for everyone.

Kim