Hi Bax
Sorry you are having trouble with your feet. I have terrible pain in my feet and ankles. I am on Enbrel and a host of other meds. Which biologic are you on? Does your biologic give you any positive effects? I have complained about my feet for years now and never get a straight answer. I have wondered if my foot pain is the progression of the disease that my biologic just isn't doing enough for. I have an appointment next month with my Rhuemy, will let you know if I get any new info.
I use hot baths, Voltaren topical ointment and heated booties to try to relieve the pain. Hope you find out what is going on soon.
Take Care Bax
I am on Enbrel, I started it in Nov of this yr. I have had back spasams and stiffness since 1988. it all started when I injured my back in a compression type injury. the pain for 23 yrs remained in my upper back and neck. I sustained another injury a couple of yrs ago, starting about L1. I started having similar type of stiffness from there down to about the belt line, at that point. I always kind of thought it was something to do with nerves. My General practitioners gave me naproxen, ibuporfen, Vioxx(worked great untill taken off market). around last march, I started losing range of motion in my neck and the stiffness in my back got much worse, it hit another gear. For yrs the ibuprofen would keep things at bay, it just quit working. I Started reading and telling my GP what I wanted done. Its amazing with the constant pain and stiffness that these schmucks had never checked my CRP OR SED rates. they were 14 and 43 respectively. I finally seen a rheumy. she took x-rays and blood work, found inflammation in the SI area( at this point I have never had any pain below the belt line). She said I had a seronegative spondylarthropathy(spelling??) she started me on Enbrel.
I started the enbrel in Nov. Within 2 weeks, the longtime inflammatory back pain, which had gotten so bad I couldnt sleep more than 4 hrs/ night. I have aged bigtime because this had gone on so long. It was all but gone, my sedrate dropped from 43 to 5, the crp from 14-.6. Now the bad at 2 weeks I developed tinnitus, my ears ring constantly, carpal tunnel, the severtiy of this has subsided but it is still with me. Also planter fascitis in my left foot. At 4 weeks I developed fatigue like I had never experienced, it was like I had been awake for 3-4 days straight all of the time. I could barely remember my name. I was completely worthless at this point. I continued to take the enbrel thinking that I would adjust. at 5 weeks I developed SI weakness and tenderness, elbow pain, wrist pain, knee pain, ankle pain and toe pain. The severity continued to get worse with each shot. My ankles burned like they had been injected with hot oil. My elbows were so sore i could not extend my arms and my grip strenth had diminished greatly. My Rheumy I could tell, had no clue what was going on. She wanted me to discontinue the enbrel for a period of time to see if the symptoms went away, then restart it to see if they come back. I quit if for 6 weeks, some of these symptoms went away, those that didnt, the severity dissipated. I resumed the enbrel a month ago. Most of these symptoms havent worsened since resuming, with the exception of the feet, its now in my right foot. I am wondering if I should try a different biologic. I cant say I want to go back to that back pain I had, it had driven me to drinking heavily before bed time, just to try to sleep. I am no longer doing that. I have lots of anxiety, had to start xanax to sleep. Sorry so long winded, as you know, there is no easy explanation of any of this stuff. These docs have no idea what we go thru.
