Hello everyone

[cricket]

Hello. My name is Michael. I am 56 years old and in generally good health except for my iritis, which I've been battling for 13 years. During that time I've had about a dozen flareups, which have grown increasingly difficult to treat as I've gotten older. Initially, the use of prednisolone drops were effective, but my last couple of bouts required very high dosages of oral steroids (prednisone) for extended periods. The problem here is that 80mg a day of prednisone was making me psychotic. I could not function normally, and it was affecting all aspects of my life. The iritis finally cleared, and I am now on a semi-permanent regimen of four drops per day of prednisolone drops to maintain. I am really concerned about the next flareup because they seem to get increasingly worse, and I have told the doctor that I refuse to go on oral prednisone again. I'd rather be blind than crazy. Anyway, if I refuse to take the oral steroid, my doctor told me that there is nothing more he can do for me. A couple of other things:

I do not have the HLA-B27 phenotype

The doctor attempted to wean me of the prednisone by substituting a weekly injection of methotrexate and a bi-weekly injection of humira, but these were not effective.

[Mike Bartolatz]

what dose of Methotrexate was tried and was it in combination with Humira? best results are achieved when they are used together.

Remicade seems to work better than Humira in uveitis patients too also combined with Methotrexate, cellcept or Imuran.

a short trial wouldn't work as it takes at least six weeks of MTX to start working. the TNF A drugs also about 6 weeks to two months before they will work. this is the main way of getting uveitis to remission.

wish you the best,
Mike