Hi all,
My doc's about to put me on this can any one give me there views if
they are talking this and what they where on before it.

Cheers Dave

"Dave" <saltcomp@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:r0uq80hpcokjveujt1b6hbmqa9rst13r6g@4ax.com...
Hi Dave,,,, Well,,, I was on gold shots with my first RD (arthritis
doctor). My insurance stopped paying for anything given by injection and I
thought I was cured anyway. So for about 2-3 months everything was fine
while the gold slowly worked its way out of my system. The next thing I
knew, I was bed ridden and unable to do anything for myself. Do you know
how humbling it is to have to have someone to help you out of bed, feed you,
shower you,,,, help you go to the bathroom????? I do.
Methx put a stop to that and 3-4 months later I was back at
work. Not a 100 % but able to manage 10-12 other people who did the work.
I took it for 7-8 years up to 20mg by shot at the end. I could not take
more than that because my liver enzyme readings would go up if I went over
20mg. :-) You will get tired of the blood tests but they serve a purpose.
The doctor usually starts you out at about 7.5mg to 10mg to find
out how your system reacts to the medicine. I had to get up to 15 mg
before it started to control my RA and the swelling in my joints went down.
I stayed at 17.5 mg for lots of years and 20 mg at the end as it slowly
stopped working for me.
Ask your doctor for a prescription for 1 mg folic acid and take 1
to 5mg a day which helps a great deal with the side effects of taking Methx.
Methx blocks your bodies ability to get enough folic from your food and you
need it to be healthy. The best way to take Methx is by shot but the
amount you take may have to be dropped a little because your body gets all
of the Methx you take that way instead of loosing a little through the gut
when you take pills. Drink plenty of water the day before and the day of
taking Methx,,,, that helps.
I will be honest with you in that I never enjoyed taking Methx. I
felt like crap the day I took it once a week. The reason you take it once
a week is to give your liver time to recover from taking it.
It needs those 6 other days to get right and then its time to do it all over
again. So it goes. You can email me if you want to and we can talk
about it.
Harv

Dave wrote:
Hi Dave,

They generally start you at at a small dose. At higher dose, I
had no energy the day after I took it. So I took it on Friday
night so it would not affect my job. Somebody posted her a few
months back that they took the extremely high dose that is used
to fight cancer. It really helped her RA. So she would show up
for her shots on MTX day with all the other folks getting it.
They all felt horrible, but it helped her RA so much that she
came bouncing in ready to get another shot.

Be sure to take folic acid. It helps reduce some side effects.

Ray

Hi Dave.
I have PA (psoriatic Arthritis). I used MTX for 18 month. Disaster
after 6 months. I had 20mg/week which is average, but next two days
after taking it I had stomac problems and was very tired. After 1 year
I had two higher the dose. After that I got completely tired almost
all week and for not having stomach problems I had to inject it
myself. No problem, but also no progression. So I stopped.
Now I am on Arava. A good alternative. Easy taking just 1 pill a day
and Folium Acid as vitamin to help for side effects. No tiredness at
all, and can do anything without infections of the arthritis.
I hope you have a good parallel herewith. Take care and hopefully good
health.
Anne, The Netherlands.