I am on 10 mg Avara every other day. I was scared for like 2 months to take it but the Dr. told me after I asked if I could have one or two glasses of red wine a month... this was the basically only way I would take the drug.. I really am not an alcoholic or anything but don't want to give that up completely. I know they say you have to not drink but next week is my birthday(I will be 38) and I would like to have some. Does anybody here have any comments on drinking while on this med... thanks,.
I take MTX; but I suppose we get simular warnings. My doctor ok's a few glasses of wine.
I rarely ever drink more than two glasses at a time but I do drink several glasses a week.
Provided you haven't had any past troubles with your liver due to your meds I think you'll be ok in moderation. However if your liver has ever tested off I'd avoid it all together.
Good Luck....and Happy Birthday!
I was told to have only one glass of wine a week. I do have a bit more. But I'm not on MTX - my doc said if she put me on that she didn't want me to have any wine ever, ever, ever.... Sounded a bit too restrictive. I do love wine. But NSAIDS can cause liver damage too, even over the counter ones can do your liver in.
If I have wine too close to my blood tests, the liver enzymes are a bit elevated. The doc said it takes 3 or 4 days for the liver to recover from a drink! So I don't have anything for a few days before the tests. And things seem to be ok. We do have to be careful though, we only have one liver!
The strange thing is - since I have RA - my body does not tolerate much alcohol. More so - the longer I have had it. I feel so fragile. Two beers and I get a headache. I miss having a drink when Brett is not around and still will have a beer with pizza or Mexican. I love good wine but I love it too much. I can't have one glass so I avoid it all together. So- I guess you can say the one good thing about RA. It has made me avoid much alcohol. I used to like sneaking off and having a drink since my hubby is an alcoholic and I cannot drink in front of him or have it in the house.
One more thing, I used to like having a drink when I was taking codeine based painkillers. That is because I am allergic to codeine and it made me so nervous and itchy. I am so glad I am not taking vicoden anymore.
I'm on mtx and drink wine whenever I want. No problems. I'm only on 5 mg/week though. Don't know if that makes a difference or not. But I figure, I'm gonna life and it that includes drinking wine, so be it!
Susan meant to say "enjoy" life!! Susan I've never had that problem with my liver testing bad. I'll drink a glass of wine the night before my appointment and it never makes a difference. Some people just have problems with their livers and often it has nothing to do with what they drink. I know people that have had horrible liver problems and never drink a drop. Luck of the draw I think. Some doctors make you swear it off like Grdnidy's did and some like mine never mention it. I brought it up to my doctor because of all the warnings and all the conversations here. He said in moderation I'll be fine. I've decided to go with that advise because it's the advise I was looking for. As in life with people you have some that are very conservative and those that are rather moderate.
Donna
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