HOW LONG ???

[Tottenham]

How long does it take for your immune system to get back to normal after you come off raptiva ???

[RichJ]

hi tottenham,
sorry i can't help much but i can bump you to the top. maybe some one will come through and help with your ?

have a good night all

richard

[Kimbercat]

How long does it take for your immune system to get back to normal after you come off raptiva ???
First of all, I'm not sure what you mean by "back to normal" for your immune system, since it's already established that our immune systems aren't "normal" to start with. Secondly, in most cases, you should not go off of Raptiva "cold turkey", as it's already documented that most people will flare when the drug is stopped. In most cases, you would step down to a different drug to be tapered off slowly and avoid a flare.

I can only tell you what my experience was, since we're all different, but most people who have gone off of Raptiva have experienced some pretty nasty flares. I was in a clinical study where the goal was to see how long it would take to flare when Raptiva was stopped, and what could succesfully prevent that. From what I recall, I was flaring pretty badly within a week, so cyclosporine was rx'd for me. I lasted less than 10 days on cyclo because I wasn't able to tolerate the side effects (nausea, extreme fatigue, and feeling like I'd been hit by a truck.) So there really wasn't any other option for me at that time except to wait it out.

Fortunately, I had a vacation in southern California planned right about that time. So that alleviated a good deal of stress. It also meant I could get a bit of sun. I'm not sure how much of a factor those things were, but eventually after about 2 months, the flare began to subside. Shortly after that, the same clinic began a study for Humira, so I immediately jumped on the bandwagon. I started seeing remarkable results within 2 weeks, and have basically remained 99.5% clear for the past 3 years. The current study I'm in for Humira has now been extended out to 5 years in order to document long term usage, so I'm doing great, and I'm thrilled!

That's probably WAAAAY more than you wanted to know, but I hope it helps answer your questions. :rolleyes: Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best of luck, and hope you find your own way to kick the p! :)

[Tottenham]

Thanks Kim for the great info i dont know if you have read any of my posts but after few weeks on raptiva i started to ache knee then back it got to the point i could no longer stand the pain and at this time i am weening of raptiva i was injecting my self every 7 days then 8 days then 9 / 10 / 11 then in october i will start on humira but i had to have a TB test first which came back positive that scared the @#&% out of me then a chest x ray which can back negative ???....( i had a TB test in 2003 when i was on embrel the skin test was negative...raptiva ??? ) as for the flare up it has not happend yet but my p is coming back slowly scalp, back and feet mostly,I just pray that the pain will go away when all the raptiva is out of my system...thanks for the great info and more is good as far as info is concerned thanks again...Tony