About four years ago (a year after our oldest daughter was born); my wife started experiencing some health problems. Her fingers became really sore and swelled to the point she needed her wedding band cut off and she ended up with soreness in other joints as well.
After seeing a couple different doctors, she was diagnosed with psoriatic dactylitis; or inflammation of her joints caused by the psoriasis she has had since she was a teenager.
We took her to see a rheumatologist and, after trying a couple different combinations of medicine, she was ultimately put on Enbrel.
Now, she can’t live without it.
I’m going to start out by telling those of you who might be interested in this drug to make sure you have a good prescription plan. One month’s supply (four weekly doses) costs about $1,300. If our insurance didn’t pay all but $30 of that, we would never have been able to buy it.
But, if you do have a good prescription plan and you are suffering from a condition like what my wife has, this is a drug that is worth checking out.
My wife started with the Enbrel a couple weeks after it was prescribed (the medicine is injected weekly and they wanted to give her lessons so she knew how to do it properly). She has taken it weekly since; except when she was pregnant with our second daughter (nobody could tell us for certain whether it would cause health problems with the baby so we played it safe).
It took about a week but her symptoms improved after just one injection. The swelling in her fingers went away and her joint pain wasn’t as bad. By the first month, she was feeling pretty much normal and we could get her wedding ring re-sized and repaired.
The Enbrel also worked wonders on the psoriasis itself. My wife had just a few major spots of it on her body but it made her feel self conscious. This was especially true about a patch on her wrist that she kept hiding because people kept asking her about it. After starting the Enbrel, that patch and most of the other spots pretty much disappeared. What remained is barely noticeable.
In terms of side effects, I have kept a close eye on my wife since she started this medicine and really haven’t noticed any, with one exception. When she takes the medicine, it always seems to drain her right after. That’s why we make sure she takes it right before bed.
The other thing my wife mentioned about the medicine is it is extremely painful to take. She once described it as shooting bees into her leg. Normally, I have to make sure the kids are in bed so I can hold her hand and give her words of encouragement while she takes it. The pain, however, is temporary and usually is gone after a couple minutes.
Overall though, I think this is a great product and I am glad we were able to find it and our insurance was willing to pay for it. I only hope is the company will eventually lower the price and maybe find a way to put it in pill form.
