I’ve been on Enbrel for a little over 5 years now. It took about 6 months after the FDA indicated Enbrel for AS before we could convince our insurance company to pay for it. After that it took 4 or 5 months to notice much improvement, and then things started getting much better and continued to improve for about another year before leveling off. I haven’t experienced the highs and/or lows during the week.
Originally, I had the twice weekly mix yourself 25 ml injectors for a year or two. Then moved onto the 50 ml prefilleds for a couple years, then the 50 ml sureclicks. With each increment they injection procedure became easier with the trade off being more sting. Other than the sting, I haven’t noticed any difference in performance.
I never felt comfortable pulling back on the plunger on the injectors, so I always just skipped that part. I’d say it would bruise up one or twice a quarter. As far as foam, verses clumps… I never really paid much attention to that either. Not everyone’s style, but it worked for me.
The biggest think I’ve noticed is if you let the medicine warm up to room temperature just before injecting, it usually diminishes the sting. My rheumatologist recommended this trick and it works about 2/3rds of the time for me.
