Light Treatment, Stelara, Fumaderm???

[Caroline]

Hi, Welcome to psoriasisclub

I am one of the DMF gang So my answer would be try to get the Fumaderm.
In the UK however the protocol is still first MTX. I hate MTX it is pure poison.
Where I live, over here in the Netherlands, it is already changing, DMF is getting to become more and more the first and prevalent treatment when you go to Systemics.

Light is nice but all this hard radiation can bring you into trouble when you get older. You will undoubtedly become more sensitive for skin cancer.

Another very good approach would be Acetretin. Few side effects and not to harmful.

The BIO's are the last resort as Fred says. You will certainly not get them in the beginning.

I wish you wisdom at the derm tomorrow.

Cheers,
Caroline

[D Foster]

Hi, Welcome to psoriasisclub

I am one of the DMF gang     So my answer would be try to get the Fumaderm.
In the UK however the protocol is still first MTX. I hate MTX it is pure poison.
Where I live, over here in the Netherlands, it is already changing, DMF is getting to become more and more the first and prevalent treatment when you go to Systemics.

Light is nice but all this hard radiation can bring you into trouble when you get older. You will undoubtedly become more sensitive for skin cancer.

Another very good approach would be Acetretin. Few side effects and not to harmful.

The BIO's are the last resort as Fred says. You will certainly not get them in the beginning.

I wish you wisdom at the derm tomorrow.

Cheers,
Caroline

Hi PITG welcome to the PClub, we are a happy band of sufferers who will try to help as much as we can and as we all have P/PsA then we are looking at it from the point of view of people who are very experienced in it not like a lot of the health workers.
I don't agree with Caroline regarding MTX, it can be a very good answer but it can have side effects but in the low doses that P/PsA users have them it's not to bad at all for some. I used MTX for nine years, six by tablets and three by self injection but eventually the side effect caught up with me.
Bio's are only the last resort because of cost and after a using a vast amount of treatments including Acetretin but not DMF I am of the opinion that Stelara is the best treatment with the best results I have used.

[AmandaL]

Hi PITG, how did your appointment go?

[Caroline]

Hi, Welcome to psoriasisclub

I am one of the DMF gang     So my answer would be try to get the Fumaderm.
In the UK however the protocol is still first MTX. I hate MTX it is pure poison.
Where I live, over here in the Netherlands, it is already changing, DMF is getting to become more and more the first and prevalent treatment when you go to Systemics.

Light is nice but all this hard radiation can bring you into trouble when you get older. You will undoubtedly become more sensitive for skin cancer.

Another very good approach would be Acetretin. Few side effects and not to harmful.

The BIO's are the last resort as Fred says. You will certainly not get them in the beginning.

I wish you wisdom at the derm tomorrow.

Cheers,
Caroline

Hi PITG welcome to the PClub, we are a happy band of sufferers who will try to help as much as we can and as we all have P/PsA then we are looking at it from the point of view of people who are very experienced in it not like a lot of the health workers.
I don't agree with Caroline regarding MTX, it can be a very good answer but it can have side effects but in the low doses that P/PsA users have them it's not to bad at all for some. I used MTX for nine years, six by tablets and three by self injection but eventually the side effect caught up with me.

Hihi, and that is exactly my point about MTX Dave, you have to give up, I am still on DMF for about ten years without problems.

You see PITG.
There is a healthy form of discussions on this forum. So you will see all kinds of sides and form your own opinion.

Bio's are only the last resort because of cost and after a using a vast amount of treatments including Acetretin but not DMF I am of the opinion that Stelara is the best treatment with the best results I have used.

Stelara, if you react good on it, seems to be one of the best biologicals. That I can agree with.

[Kat]

Welcome!

The side effects you mention do sound like you could have been on Acitretin (which is used to treat psoriasis and is a retanoid). It would be intersting to learn what you were on and also what your dermatologist has said.

Good luck!

[PainInTheGuttate]

Hi everyone, been a couple of weeks since I've been able to post for various reasons but here's the update: 

So I saw my derm and asked about the best course of action moving forward. As predicted by alot of you he was of the opinion that I should only consider bios etc as a last resort. He was happy to put me on them however, his recommendation was to go with the light therapy first and in 3 months we will have a chat and see how I'm looking and decide on whether to go on anything else from there. 

Basically the way I see this going is that I'm going to do this light therapy be clear for a few months, gradually start flaring up again and in about a year will probably go onto Stelara. Who knows in a year what my opinion will be but after chatting with my derm he did suggest that quite a high volume of people will suffer extreme side effects with fumaderm to the point where they cant carry on with the treatment and that has really put me off. I like the idea with Stelara that its just an injection here and there and I'll be on my merry way. I do understand that Stelara carries with a whole load of side effects of its own however.  

He also prescribed me with some mometasone ointment which is a stronger steroid than what I have used before and only need to apply once a day which is much more conveniant than applying 2 or 3 times a day like others, especially with guttate. I've been using that for about 2 weeks now and it is slowly doing the job but I still have plenty of bad patches and steroid creams never keep me clear, but its been a good treatment to get some results before the light therapy. 

Today I had my first session in with the light therapy which went well, despite me forgetting to bring a spare sock so I had to use one of the ones I was wearing to cover up the family jewels. The first session was literally about 30 seconds so will be a couple of weeks before I start seeing real results but my next session is Monday and I have it 3 times a week so I'll keep everyone updated with my progress.

[Fred]

Good to hear you have a plan, it sounds like a good one to me.

Now you know where you are going, you're welcome to start another thread if you want. You're under no obligation to do so and you can carry on here if you would rather.

Your choice.

Good luck.

[jiml]

Good luck with the light treatment, as you say it will give clearance for a short time ....then we will have the summer which should also help

I see you are leaning towards Stelara. It's a good drug there's no doubt about that and as long as you pass the health tests before you start it should give a good result for you....

I think it's a shame that your dermatologist has put you off Fumaderm as its such a safe drug ...like all of them though you do need monitoring

Looking forward to reading your updates and I hope the light treatment works quickly for you .....it always did for  me

[Kat]

The light therapy helped me as well.

Side effects really depend on person to person. I don't take Fumaderm but from what I've learned here and heard from others, it seems to affect them the most at the beginning and those who have been on it a long time seem to have very mild issues (if any) at times. One of the Fumaderm people here can correct me on this.

Good luck, hopefully the light therapy will help get you going in the right direction!

[Caroline]

The light therapy helped me as well.  

Side effects really depend on person to person.  I don't take Fumaderm but from what I've learned here and heard from others, it seems to affect them the most at the beginning and those who have been on it a long time seem to have very mild issues (if any) at times.  One of the Fumaderm people here can correct me on this.

Good luck, hopefully the light therapy will help get you going in the right direction!

True Kat. Fumaderm, or better all approaches by means of DMF are very future proof. In NL thousands of people already use it for 10 years or more with minor problems. Still, monitoring stays necessary.