8 weeks on 15mg of MTX - should I still be needing 6 Darvocet a day???
Any input appreciated!
Lulu
lulu, hi again,
just asked my rd the same thing. he said mtx is not a pain reliever, but slows down the progression of the disease. hopefully enough that you will be in less pain, he says the same thing as my gp, take the ultram on schedule , 2 4x a day. hope that helps
mary
Lulu,
I've been on 10 mg/wk of mtx for about 8 mos. & 4 to 6 vicodin/d for a year. I wish I could tell you how much was too much.
Mike
6 a day? Wow, I'd be sleeping 24/7 ... one knocks me outThanks everyone....I guess that's why I haven't had this sudden arrest of pain like I've been waiting for....hmmm, hmm hmmmmm.....
Lulu Mike. You might talk to your Rheu... about bumping up the dose of MTX. 10mg is not very much. I don't know what kind of arthritis you have, but some people take as much as 25mg weekly. They usually try to bring down the dosage after you are getting results and then level off . I took it for many years with good results. Good luck to you. Barb
I think both of you should increase your dose of MTX. I steadily increased mine....deceasing my pain every step of the way. When it got to the point that 22.5 wasn't cutting it....we added Humira bi-weekly. When that stopped cutting it we increased that to weekly. Until recently I wasn't in the habit of taking any pain medications at all. I would take something to help me sleep....but my pain had decreased so much I didn't need it. If you're taking up to 6 vicodin or Ultram a day you are far from under control. Talk to your RD about an increase. When I said "until recently" I meant that for the last month I had to stop taking both MTX & Humira as a result of an infection....at that point I did indeed need the pain medications and tons of advil everyday. I'm back on my meds now (WOOHOO!!)....and hopefully that will decrease again to the point where I only take MTX & Humira weekly and 1/2 way forget I have RA. Lovie Doesn't sound good to me. It's been a long time since I was on Methotrexate and I'm not exactly a great ambassador for it - I was on 30mg for three years and still had monthly joint aspirations and cortisone shots. You're right in saying it's not a pain reliever, but pain is caused by inflammation (and damage) so by successfully reducing the inflammation it should reduce your pain. For me, good control means only taking painkillers for my knees, both of which are damaged and so give me some pain most of the time, but none at all would be even better =) Best wishes, Moonie Well, for me it reduced the pain definitely! It took about 4 to 5 weeks to see the difference. When I reduced the amount, I definitely hurt more. Susan
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