Hi,
Sorry in advance for the long post - this is my first post here. A brief history is that I was diagnosed with an undetermined form of autoimmune arthritis in April 2007. Both my grandmother and mother have RA, but test negative for rheumatoid factor. I have several other autoimmune conditions, some of which can also cause arthritis (psoriasis and crohn's).
I've been taking (oral) methotrexate since diagnosis with mixed success. When I first started taking it I had surprisingly good success on a low dose. At various points I started getting some breakthrough pain and upped the dose. I'm currently at 17.5 mgs.
The last few weeks I've been having a fair amount of joint pain and I'm thinking it's time to go back to the doctor. Part of me is hesitating because the pain seems largely connected to the weather; but the other part of me is saying that since my other autoimmune conditions are flaring the methotrexate isn't working (one of the flaring conditions has no connection to weather) .
Part of my hesitation is because I've more than tripled my original dose in the last year. I'm reluctant to go higher because last time I tried 20 mgs I had some side effects. It seems strange that the medications appears to be losing its efficacy so quickly. Has anyone else had noticed a similar decline in efficacy?
Thanks in advance,
Melissa
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