Tremfya for psoriatic arthritis Fred's journey

[Fred]

Had my dermatology appointment yesterday and she wasn't happy with the psoriatic arthritis, so she looked at shortening the time between jabs or doubling up but it's not authorised.

After a very long chat (just over 1 hour) we went through the option of trying Taltz but she wasn't keen as it targets IL 17 the same as Cosentyx and she reminded me that although Cosentyx was good for the psoriatic arthritis it did fail and ended up giving me induced Eczema. Her suggestion in the end was to move over to Ilumetri which targets IL 23 like Tremfya and is currently going through and observational study in France. 

So I have signed up for the trial and will be changing to Ilumetri in a few weeks time. *I will start a new thread when I take my first shot and it will be interesting as Ilumetri isn't prescribed for psoriatic arthritis here yet.

We also spoke about a couple of other things whilst I was there.

1. She agreed that the covid jab could have been the reason the Tremfya didn't work as good as it was and she will pass on my notes as they are looking further into it.
   
2. She said although they are offering a booster covid jab I won't need one as I had already had 3.
   
3. She also agreed with the other doctors about the ankle problem and it was indeed psoriatic arthritis. We may go to rheumatology for an injection, but for the moment let's see if Ilumetri helps.
   
4. She checked a mole on my back I have had for many years because Mrs Fred noticed it was bleeding a little one day, but all was good and it was just that I caught it somehow (probably in the garden)
   
5. Had a lot of other checks whilst there and all was good.
   

Oh interesting point. We got talking about my alcohol intake as she noticed it was showing in the blood tests. She asked if I was drinking more than usual and I said yes because of the psoriatic arthritis and she said 1 or 2 per day or more, I replied more, she said how much, I replied "Too Much" and she laughed. I did say I don't drink till past 18:00 and it was always red wine and she said it was fine. 

So what do I think of Tremfya ?

If you have psoriasis: I would highly recommend it, here is a before and after shot of the worse psoriasis on one of my shins.

Before Tremfya


How it looks today. It got to this point very quickly and has maintained the clearance for 18 months.


If you have psoriatic arthritis: I would say try another bio, Tremfya just couldn't keep it away. But we are all different and I do have very bad psoriatic arthritis.

So time to move again, watch this space as I will add a link to the new thread when I start Ilumetri.