MTX Working...or, end of flare? | Arthritis Information

I have no idea. I was on oral MTX from March through July. It did nothing. Then, I started on the max dose of injectible MTX in September. I had an awful jaw flare right in the middle of it, and took some prednisone. Well the pred helped my hand/wrist some but even after that my elbow and shoulder were so messed up, and my foot too.

So, one week before my RD appt, I was bad off. Jaw, and elbow/shoulder were making reaching/moving arm around impossible. Foot still bad. But he noticed (and so did I) that the swelling in my wrist was down...the first time since last December when this all began! And I can do a LOT more with that hand/wrist now. But I do appear to have some permanent loss of ROM (or else there is still some swelling). I start plaq. 1.5 week ago, will up my dose this week.

We had been most concerned about the swelling right at the top of my wrist, around those tiny bones in your hand/wrist. Well actually the x-ray showed erosions not there but on the ulna. And I think the area around my ulna is still swollen (or just perm. damage). My jaw is SO much better (but not 100% and I've had some ear pain).

My shoulder is different...not as swollen but a lot more of sharp pains when I unfold my elbow. But my shoulder is much better.

The only other thing is my foot, which does not have visible inflammation, but which hasn't stopped hurting recently. It's a pain below my ankle/right above my heel. Hard to explain. And my knees have been achey.

So I can't tell if the injectible MTX is starting to help some, or if I'm just going through a good patch of sorts (because I still have swelling in jaw/elbow/some in foot).

I am going to wait until my jaw x-ray in early November to decide whether to consider biologics before my next RD appt in Jan. Before my last appt, I was in so much pain (esp. with jaw) and seriously considering biologics. Now that my pain is down I'm not as motivated but my RD more so because of the erosions.

Thanks for letting me organize my thoughts.

What's also weird is that I have had costochondritis again recently. I think as I'm more active generally that flares.

considering that you just upped the dose of mtx and switched to injectable I suspect you are finally hitting a therapuetic dose

I hope so. I was sort of wondering if he'd give me three full months of injectible (I saw him after only 2) since the theory was that the oral MTX did nothing. Most of my joints are good today--my feet ache but they have done that forever---except that my right jaw/ear are hurting again. I tried to eat some sliced apple yesterday and had Domino's too. Not smart!
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