Doc says Otezla is not working and it is time for me to start the Enbrel. Even afgter he put me on 5mg of prednisone for the last three months he said it wasn’t working.
Now I am starting to taper off the prednisone and will begin the Enbrel Friday. He gave me three Sure CIicks and said I would know within a few weeks if it was going to work. I told him that if it worked, I wanted the prefilled syringes, he said no problem.
I’ll be working up the nerve over Thanksgiving, wish me luck.
Best of luck to you!! I know you have been nervous of starting something like this, but, from all I read it seems to be a good option. Will keep my fingers crossed for you!!
Good for you! I think it took me just a few weeks to notice a difference. It wasn’t instantly awesome, but clear that it was working. Hopefully you’ll get a god response and major improvement.
Doc said he would keep me in freebies until he got the insurance to go through. He said he would have to fight with them because they would want me to take MTX first, but my liver numbers are too high for that.
I took Enbrel for ten years & it worked beautifully! I like the syringes way better as well! But in the last 3 months of Enbrel I developed some side effects & I had to change meds; I was so upset because it worked so well! I tried Otezla for 3 months & it did nothing for my psoriasis & my psoriatic arthritis symptoms showed up. I was in pain for the first time since I was diagnosed with psoriasis at 16 (I’m 43)!! The Enbrel kept it at bay for all those years, thankfully! I’m hoping Enbrel works as well for you as it did for me! I now take Cosentyx & I love it! I have zero psoriasis & on a pain scale of 1-10, I’m at a 0-1 now! It’s amazing! I hope it works for me as long as Enbrel did! Good luck to you!!
Thanks. I hope I have that kind of luck. I would like some of my life back.
So many folks have had, or are having, a good experience of Enbrel. I hope it makes a real difference tarmac. Fingers crossed for you.
Huge amounts of good luck @tamac.
Good luck. I prefer the syringes as well.
Well, I did it. Fist injection last night. The Sure Click wasn’t so bad, but I have large thighs. It hurt some, but not too bad. Feeling a little punky today, but that is about all. I have my fingers crossed.
Thanks for all the support!!
Keeping fingers crossed for a quick response for you!!! I have heard others talk of noticing a positive change (or at least a sense of one) starting about day 4… here’s hoping it’s like that for you too!!! All the best and do let us know how it goes 
Good luck, tamac! I’m an Enbrel success story and my good results started very quickly (a few days). In the beginning, I thought I could be on an Enbrel ad. It’s been almost 3-1/2 years and it’s still working well, but I’m 64 and, of course no matter how well Enbrel works, I can’t expect to feel like a healthy 30-year old anymore! 
Enbrel seems good so far. I am having now site reactions from the sure click pens on my thigh.
I do seem to wake up with a headache the next morning and runny nose. I think the runny nose is worsening of my hay fever from the Enbrel.
Not sure pain is that much better, but the extreme fatigue seems to be getting better.
That happened to me too. Were you waiting for prefilled syringes?
I meant to say, NO problems with the sure clicks.
Sounds like a mostly positive start for you, am pleased to hear it!!! Keeping fingers crossed for your “day after” symptoms to settle quickly… awww… a reduction the in fatigue seems like a far off dream for me at this stage… am sooo hoping to get offered a biologic soonish lol
Enjoy every little bit of relief you get, it may take a little time to get full benefit, so don’t be too disheartened if it’s not a sudden, complete remission 
I read on here someplace else that people taking Enbrel slept less. I have gone from sleeping 12 to 14 hours if allowed to waking up before the sun comes up!!
What’s up with that?
When things are going well PsA-wise I definitely sleep less on average. Sometimes when things are hum-ho I also wake earlier than I used to. But when things take a turn for the worse sleep is a refuge and I’ll sleep late if I can.
I generally take the requirement for less sleep at face value, as a sign of being healthier overall. I suspect it may be more complex! I’m trying to reign myself in just a little when I have an energy spike because I tend to get a kick back after a few days of ‘living it up’, i.e. having what most people would call a normal, fairly full life.
However it’s interesting that you’ve seen this change so early on, apparently before significant improvement in joint / pain symptoms(?) Fatigue is a major issue for many of us and I do wonder how much of it has a psychological component, which is a long, long way from saying that it’s ‘all in your head’. I am sure fatigue is primarily due to the disease process but also think that being demoralised worsens it considerably. If anything about my ‘fun’ PsA journey looks up e.g. a good rheumy appointment, a new and more promising treatment regime etc., fatigue lessens I think. So starting a new drug with a good reputation might be part of the explanation for greeting the new day a little earlier.
Regardless of the reason or cause, enjoy! It’s great news.
I found it helped enormously with my fatigue too. Pre-Enbrel, but WITH long term steroids, I needed about 9 hours (pre-disease 7), with Embrel + steroids I was back to 7, once we tapered off the steroids but stayed on Enbrel, 8-9.
Now I’m on Humira, which I actually find has helped my joints more, and look for 8-9 on most nights. In a flare 12-14 is not unusual.
Some of it for me when I’m flaring, is as Sybil says, that flat on my back in a supportive bed is simply more comfortable. But, I’m not lying there awake either, and I do seem to find on the Humira that the Flares will often go away on their own within a day or two, if I give myself enough sleep and rest. If I don’t, then they will last longer / I’ll need to reach for steroids.
Almost as though, with a little help from some extra sleep, my body is starting to treat the acute inflammation as just that, and learning to turn it off (I find that concept very exciting)
I got moderate to good pain relief fairly quickly from Enbrel, but there was a lot of residual pain. I think my body was trained to react to almost anything by throwing out pain! It seems to slowly be getting trained out of it.