TheJude.com - Enbrel - Plan of Attack

My Plan of Attack

Once I decided that Enbrel was right for me, I had to find a doctor who is willing to treat me with it. My first choice was a rheumatologist since they would be most familiar with the drug and its side effects. However, I could not find one who knew about the relationship between TNF-alpha and back pain. My second choice was my surgeon but again, he was not familiar with the drug or its use in curing back pain. I finally decided to speak to my family physician since she was most familiar with my case and my pain.

Knowing that this information is not mainstream and most doctors would not be familiar with it, I bought a copy of Dr. Omoigui's book and printed out all of the articles cited in Important Links. My husband made an appointment with my doctor solely to discuss this option. We did not try to discuss this with her in conjunction with a regular appointment knowing that most doctors are too busy to fit in a meaningful discussion of such a radical new treatment during the time allotted to a normal appointment.

Once my doctor decided to proceed, she called a rheumatologist to familiarize herself with the drug, its application and side effects. My doctor had me get a blood test, a urine test and a TB test to make sure I had no latent infections. On the day of the shot, after receiving the shot, I went directly home to rest, since my immune system was going to be compromised for a few days and there was always the chance I would have a reaction to the drug. My doctor suggested staying away from crowds for a few days. For me, the pain began to wane by that evening and within 18 hours, the pain was completely gone. We knew from our research that if there is no reduction in pain by 24 - 48 hours, there wasn't going to be any. In other words, it works or it doesn't, there really isn't a middle ground. Luckily for me, it worked really well.

In my opinion, some day, this will be a doctor's first line of defense against intractable back pain, not a last resort as it was in my case. Perhaps some day, this drug and others like it will save millions of people from pain and prevent hundreds of thousands of unnecessary operations per year. (HOME->)