I know this has been brought up before, I did go back many, many pages and read the ones with mtx in the titles. However, I am seeing my rheumy Tuesday and need to be prepared to decide if I'm ready to start taking it.
Background, relatively healthy until couple of years ago. Fast forward 5 miscarriages and months and months of fertility treatments. My RA symptoms started last summer while undergoing the fertility treatments. Mostly joint pain and hand swelling. Than, I developed uvieitis. Lost my twin pregnancy last December and everything swelled and hurt. Not to mention the fatigue.
After being told I was just depressed by several doctors, finally got serum negative dx. Started placquenil. Did a few dose packs of steroids on and off. Tried alsulfadine and imuran, both made me terrible ill.
This past spring, started prednisone daily at a relatively low dose, mostly 7.5 mg. Also did enbrel for several months. Recently switched to humira once weekly. I've been in a nasty flare for a while now, close to 6 weeks. Went up to 30mg of prednsione and been working down. I'm currently doing 16.
Despite this, my hands especially are VERY swollen. Visually deformed looking. My toes and ankles and wrists also have visual swelling. My knees kill me but I don't see visual swelling but last set of x-rays this summer does show erosion's in fingers, toes and knees.
I have always had IBS, irritable bowel syndrome. I used to be constipated, in fact took miralax daily for many years. This past year, I switched to extreme diarrhea, like 15-20 times a day. They thought maybe crohns but now they don't think so, so we are back to the serum negative ra. Although the humira has been helping my diarrhea.
I'm 36 and I'm having a hard time accepting that I will probably never have a baby and going on the mtx will prolong the time before we can even try and at my age, the clock is ticking, LOUDLY. Also, I'm afraid of the fatigue, I'm already SO exhausted all the time. All I do is go to work and come home. Also, what about the gi upset?? Should I go right to the injections to avoid the gi upset?
You should suggest the injections to your doctor and see what he/she says. I've never had a problem with oral mtx, but with your history, I'd think that the injectable mtx would be the way to go.
I also wanted to ask if you've ever tried acidophilus for your IBS? My husband has had IBS since I've known him and I just bought some acidophilus and so far it's really helped him. I actually bought it for me, but after reading that it also helps IBS, I thought I'd suggest that he take it as well. He says he doesn't know if it's just a fluke, but so far he's not been bothered with any IBS problems
Good Luck,
Kelly
I take MTX along with the Humira. I had a whole bunch of nausea and vomiting on a high dose of MTX and we lowered it and that went away.
I might ask your doc if there is something else they can put you on so you can at least TRY to keep getting pregnant. That is something I am not knowledgeable about since I had a hysterectomy 4 years ago and don't have to worry about pregnancy.
Will your insurance let you go straight to injections? Most plans want you to exhaust everything else first before they pay for the injections.
Hope this helped.
Michelle, this is so tough for you. Break the decision down first as to whether you want to still try one more time for a baby or not. It sounds that you still aren't ready to give that up and I can understand.
So...I think that is what is holding you off from trying the MTX. In your case, I would search every answer that you can find for managing RA while you try to get pregnant. There are natural anti-inflammatories that can keep the inflammation down and inflammation is what causes most of the destruction. For instance, Flax Seed Oil, Primrose Oil, Fish Oil, cooking with Olive Oil all help. Eating cherries and drinking cheerie juice is supposed to be very good for you.
There are some excellent books on Natural Remedies. Research them, make a list of what you think sounds reasonable and discuss them with your doctors. I'd also look at some of those diets that are supposed to help fight Cancer.
I hate to see you wait and risk potential damage. But I can't help but feel your need to make one more attempt to have a baby. Talk to your doctor about how long you can delay this realistically. You still need to be aware of how even natural remedies can affect the fetus.
There is quite a few women who have made it through pregnancies with RA. I would search them out on all the different boards to get their experiences.
MTX will probably help you and I think the injectable sounds like a better idea if you go that way. As I told you before, my sister went through this heart breaking situation. Essentially, she went through a miscarriage almost every month or at least it felt like that. She was so desperate for a baby. But she so loves her little adopted girl who seems so perfect for her family. That love that was denied her for so long has made her strong enough to take on and fight for a special needs baby. This baby was not expected to survive, much less make it to 3 years old. Yet, she is starting to thrive. And, my sister is very happy.
Tough decision and I so wish you the best in making up your mind. Love is key here. Search your heart.
Thanks girls. I do take probiotics and ambrotose by mannatech. The IBS is an ongoing problem since I was 16. Its better and worse at certain times, kind of like the ra flares. Just really odd that after 18 years of bring constipated, I suddenly start having diarrhea!
I guess I need to talk seriously with my hubby. I know I want a baby and so does he but I also know he is very reluctant to try again. It was very hard of both of us. We really thought we were going to be ok with the last pregnancy. We made it to 15 weeks with identical twin girls when a routine ultrasound showed their little hearts had stopped beating.
He has said he doesn't even want to talk about trying again until I've been feeling healthy for a while. So, we haven't seriously discussed it much recently. I guess this weekend would be a good time to have a heart to heart. I've been putting it off partly because I'm afraid he will say he doesn't want to try again for fear of seeing me suffer another loss. His fear is valid as I know my chances aren't very good of actually carrying a baby but I haven't been able to deal with the reality of it all yet. I guess its time.
For some reason, starting mtx just makes it seem final in my mind that we won't ever try again. I know there might be time but for some reason it feels like giving up.
I'm just not sure how much more pain and swelling I can take. Some days I am seriously SO depressed, I really don't care if I wake up in the morning, know what I mean. I know a lot of that is the prednisone and the never ending pain.
I haven't been to see my shrink in a few months, hmm, maybe its time I called her. I doubt I can see her before Tuesday but she always helps me to put things in perspective.
As a relatively newbie here, I really appreciate all the kind words and support. Its hard for other people to understand the pain we endure, day after day. Even if no one can actually give me any answers, it at least helps to talk it out with people who understand and care! Love and hugs to all.
I'll be off-line until Monday, have a great weekend everyone!