rheumy visit***more pills pushed

[eye2dry]

hello to all.

saw my rheumy today, last apt was in January.
Notified him of increased fatigue, terrible eye inflammation...etc
also that I quit working last week.

he said my sjogrens and ra are active, said he could feel
the increased warmth coming from my joints.

he said I am at my limit for mtx and plaquinil.

he was strongly pushing to start Humira today....very strongly
he told me why he felt Humira would be better for me vs Enbrel.

I told him I am not ready for injections......they scare me.
it's not the needle it's the med in it.
plus he wanted me to continue with the plaquenil and mtx too
he feels I am making a mistake.

anyways he nudged me towards a new med to go with
the other meds.  he added "sulfasalazine 500mg twice a day"

anyone else on this? what do you think of it?
anyone else in a similar situation where your rheumy is
really wanting to get aggressive and your not.

tomorrow is my first apt with a
disability attorney.

shelly

[warmwaters]

Just looked at what that med is.
http://www.drugs.com/cdi/sulfasalazine.html

It is salicylate, which has is an anti-inflammitory with no steroids. Aspirin is another drug in the category.   

It appears that he wants to deal with some of the inflammation that you are experiencing.

I've been lucky that none of my rheumy have ever insisted on me taking something I didn't want. However, I certainly have had the experience of having drugs recommend that completely scared me, due to the possible side effects. And though I haven't had any injectables recommended, I am somewhat needle-phobic so that would be an issue for me.

Eventually, I tried several of the drugs that scared me. It took me some time (months) to assess the possible risks of the meds versus the possible quality of life improvements. In your case, with RA, you also need to take into account the possible damage to joints risk as well.

There are no easy answers - we each decide what risks we are willing to tolerate, what side effects we may be willing to put up with.  Give yourself some time to look at these options and determine which you might be willing to try. Or what you are willing to put up with if you don't try them. Or determine if you have questions about other options that you need to discuss with the doctor.

[Carebear]

I am not a doctor, so don't take this as gospel.  But when I went off of sulfasalazine in order to start Methotrexate, my doctor, my pharmacist and the information from the drug manufacturer were very clear.  They warned that one should never mix those two drugs. 

Please check this out, because I may be completely out in left field.  I just don't want you to experience any kind of drug interaction if I could have said something to prevent it.

As for Humira, I know it is scary, but maybe it is worth researching this drug yourself.  With injections, I inject my Methotrexate weekly and I am a wimp with needles, so I know you can do it too.

[BKreader]

My Rhuemy is wanting to put me on Imuran. I don't feel that bad even though my recent labs showed very low C3 & C4 which she uses as markers of disease activity. I am dealing with my new Neuro symptoms ok. I meet with her Moday and I know she's going to push this. I have wondered how to best handle that situation. I like my Rhuemy and don't want to offend her, but I feel immune suppression would be a mistake for me at this time. I get sick from them frequently. I'm fighting off their nasty cough as I type.

[Tharrell]

I was on both mtx and sulfazalasine for several month without problems as prescribed by my rheumy. I can understand your worry about humira. I told my doctor I would rather quit my work than to start humira. I quit working and two month later I was on humira any way! It was the best thing that happened, my joint pain actually went into remission!
Unfortunatly I can't take it right now, because my cea levels continue to rise and I'm on cancer watch by my oncologist. My rheumy said it would be like throwing fat into the fire.
Oh well.