MTX question | Arthritis Information

How long it takes to kick in?

Is injectible better than pills?

How will I know it is working?

[QUOTE=veenu]How long it takes to kick in? Not sure but I felt better within a few weeks

Is injectible better than pills? I would prefer the injectible but in my corner of the States,it's not available at this time..not from my pharmacy ..... not from bulk med supplier either.

How will I know it is working? Any day after taking it will bring you more and more relief from the disease.

[/QUOTE] Hey Veenu, MTX kick in for me pretty quickly, about 2 weeks, but it can take up to 3 months I believe. It effects people differently, as with all drugs. The injectable was easier on my stomach and you will know it is working because you will feel better - more energy, less pain and stiffness.

Best and good luck!
Well- I don't know. I was taking it for about 6 weeks with no result. Then the dr. jacked up my prednisone to 40 mgs and over night I was a new woman! veenu, I was on MTX for 18 months, and it didn't do a thing for me that I know of - was still sick, no change in symptoms, nothing. My white blood cell counts kept dropping and I finally quit. I now have osteoporosis (downgraded to osteopenia after a year of treatment) and a catarat, so I guess it did something. MTX just wasn't the right drug for me. Good luck. The result is differernt for everyone. For me, it relieved some of the symptoms over a 4 month period, but not enough so added enbrel. What dose are you starting on? All doctors treat differently, but you may find that you need to increase every 4-6 weeks if there isn't a change. I took both oral and inject, didn't really see a difference in either for results. Good luck to you - hope it works quickly!Unlike Enbrel I could never pinpoint the exact moment MTX began working. But I think any of the pain/inflammation relief was offset by the increase of fatigue caused by the drug and that made it harder to determine.

IN my case I felt the results gradually over the coarse of a couple months. Every week I felt a little better but it wasn't until I was on a higher dose that I really got good results. The injectable is usually prescribed to those folks that can't tollerate it well. Some people have a really horrible time with their stomach so taking it by injection by passes the stomach all together and absorbs directly through the blood stream. For some; yes....it's much better.

You might want to start a journal. CHarting your symptoms might help you see how well and at what point things begin to get better for you. It's a little harder to appreciate the changes when they are gradual. When they are over night it's easy to appreciate.....but when it comes on over the course of weeks or months; not so much.

It took many many months to notice the gradual improvement in my hands and hips. In fact, by the time it was really helping, my husband was so used to cutting my food and everything automatically, it took quite awhile to get him to stop!

I do give it to myself in injections, despite a dose of only 15mg/week. I need it by that route to avoid my gut since I have an autoimmune bowel disease too and Plaquenil caused such fierce diarrhea, I lost 30lbs. Too bad I gained 20 back!

I don't have any complaints about Mtx or even the Plaquenil since they prevented damage. My joint symptoms are stiffness, pain, swelling. Dr hasn't taken Xrays of fingers, just hips where it turned out to be just bad bursitis, also common with RA. When I had shoulder surgery last year, bursitis was found in there to be so bad, it had to be removed. And guess what I learned... we grow bursa back! We are like lizards with their tails and my daughter's little neon fish when a bad fish bit off their tails... amazing. The new bursa doesn't grow to same original size, but at least some cushion is provided. I think it's interesting.

CathyMarie