Today was my long awaited RA doctor appointment. I missed the last one because Happi's emergency appointment. I had my first Shingles shot and despite the side effects, I am ready to get on a RA medicine.
We talked about what happened with the Shinrex shingles shot and how that effects me going on another medicine. He thinks I should go on the medicine and then go off when I am going to take the next shot and then start the medicine again.
There are two medicines he is thinking I should go on: Orencia and Xeljanz. One is an injection or an infusion and the other is a pill.
I researched both of them: side effects, customer reviews, medical notes. After reading all the material, I decided I am going to go on Orencia. It is older but I saw less side effects. It is a biologic which I didn't want to go on but as it was explained to me, it is different than Enbrel. Enbrel interferes with tumor necrosis factor by acting as a TNF inhibitor. Orencia works by interfering with the immune activity of T cells. So my chances of getting meningitis is slim to none.
I read the Xeljanz has been banned in other countries. The side effects are (as well as others) migraines, black stools, severe stomach pain, and insomnia. In the customer reviews many people wrote in stating they have the symptoms. I'll take a hard pass.
Now the current plan is I carve out a weekend over the holidays to get the next Shingles shot so I can go on the meds in the new year. Looks like New Year's will be spent in bed!! Recovering from the shingles shot. I hear the second shot is worse than the first. Whoopie!!
Until tomorrow
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