Hi Everyone,
I took my last dose of MTX (7.5) Sunday morning. I woke up at 12:30 AM this morning (Thursday!!!) shaking from head to toe, freezing, and feeling like my bone marrow was about to explode. The chills and pain lasted for 1.5 hours, then took 2-3 more hours for muscles to relax. These were not intermittent chills. It was non-stop.
Is this normal?
Pjachy, I don't get chills from MTX. I take .8 ml injectable at night. I do get achy and nauseous (feel like I have the flu) the next day. I would call the doc and see what they say. This doesn't sound typical.
I take the tablets and dont get chills. Before treatment, I got chills from the RA though, but nothing like what you are explaining. Have you just started taking MTX? Sometimes the side effects settle after a while if you can just stick with it, difficult I know.Hello pjachy!
When I was put on MTX at 7.5mg I done ok the first couple of months and then after that time I experienced something similar to what you are stating. I use to get freezing & hot flashes. A couple of hours after I would take my MTX I would become really really cold and shiver from head to toe and then by the time I felt like I was not shivering enough to try to get myself warmed up I would be sweating like I had been in a suana.
I later had to come off of MTX a month later because it was actually making me hurt worse and in body parts that were not hurting before taking it.
Oh and you might want to tell your doctor about it. As it is listed as one of those side effects on the pharmacy phamplet that you must immediately contact your doctor about if you experience. Yeah.. I did not know it was one of those side effects until I stopped taking it and a few months later I found the phamplet and read the side effect warnings.
Hope you get to feeling better soon.
I too have noticed that I get freezing cold and then get really hot. I am so glad you posted this pjachy. I also am having real bad heart burn since I started it 4 weeks ago along with a whole bunch of other side effects. I see my Rheumy tomorrow so I will ad the chills and hot flashes to my list of things I am noticing from the MTX. I know I don't have any infection as I was just at my GP and had CBC done.
Oh and my RA is 5 times worse than when I started with MTX!!
This is my 9th week on MTX (increased to 17.5mg at week 6)and have never experienced any chills.
The "shaking chills" you're describing is definitely a reaction to a medication. I experienced those chills when I received an infusion of WinRho for my ITP. I'd never felt so cold in my life... my lips were numb and my teeth chattered so loudly, my daughter could hear me outside my bedroom. Now I'm pretreated with benadryl 25mg 1/2 an hour before every WinRho treatment. I'm sleepy but there are no more shaking chills
If your dr. wants you to stay on MTX, ask him if pretreating with benadryl will help.
Judy
Brenna & Poof,
What did your rheumy say about the chills with MTX?
I see my Doc on 2/22. Just took some tonight and the chills are not as bad.