Can anyone tell me if i'm being over board, I've been on enbrel and metho. for the past six years and have managed to maintain full time employment as a sheetmetal worker doing heavy work, over the past year or so iv'e been struggling on a weekly basis with pain and nausia, the nurse told me in jan to stop taking the metho. and that she would put me forward for ritiximab, I took the usual tests for tb which came back inconclusive, so i was then told to stop the enbrel aswell, I then had a chest xray which was clear, but was now, as the weeks past waiting for results, beginning to get more problems with pain due to being off drugs, early march i was having quite severe flares and was now losing days off work, i had to almost argue that i didn't have tb to avoid another prolonged scratch test, which doesn't give a conclusive result anyway. Eventually after numerous phone calls funding was finally agreed at the end of march and as of yet i haven't heard anything back, i'm booked to go on hols at the beginning of may for a week so i really don't know what to do if they ring me with an appointment.
So to recap, mid jan, start to proceed to new drug, mid april I'm back on a daily prednistolone chipping away at my bone structure, am I being over board.
steve

your right, but my problem starts with,example: had a serious flare in march and took a day off on a thursday, I rang the nurse, a recorded message said due to staff shortages if u need a depot visit your G.P, i left a detailed message explaining my situation about waiting for new drugs, i also rang the secretary leaving a similar message, i visited my G.P she also left a message asking for them to reply, on friday still off work i left similar messages to the nurse and the secretary, monday still off, i left messages to the nurse and secretary, i even got through to the appointment counter in the waiting room and was told again about staff shortages, tuesday i left the same messages, later that day they replied and got me in to see the consultant, the consultant said they will be in touch within the next week or so to give u an appointment, two weeks later im faced with the dreaded message machine, the next day the nurse rings me and says your funding has been approved you will get a phone call shortly, when they ring you you'll need to explain about your holiday, that was last week, i havent given up i'm ringing them again tomorrow, but can u hear my frustration, is it something i should be shouting about or are the staff shortages the problem, if so its not their fault so who's fault is it, is it cut backs, is it lack of trained personel, i've signed up to the nhs foundation trust, but as of yet have been unable to attend any meetings which take place on tuesdays at 3pm covering specific issues, the next annual meeting is at 6pm in july, i just hope i can get some answers then

Hi,
After reading that somebody else having problems with their hospital got in touch with their pals team and got a quick resolution, I followed suit and wrote a letter to my pals team, the following day I was contacted by the rheu. secretary she forwarded my letter on to the department arranging my first infusion and within an hour they rang me to give a time and date. Luckily my first infusion is a week before my hols and the second is the day after i get back.
roll on summer,
steve