off of Methotrexate | Arthritis Information

 

Well, yesterday at the rheumy was long.  I am not off of Prednisone and she told me to quit taking Methotrexate since I have some high numbers in my liver count.

So this will be interesting.  I did get some Advil PM the other day and took it before I went to bed.  It really worked well. 

Since I couldn't take it in the daytime, I got some regular arthritic strength Equate/store brand at Walmart.  

She said I should take it as directed on the bottle. 

I am to take a blood test again in two weeks to see if the count went down.

I took the Advil last night and the Equate/Walmart this morning and I am not hurting too much.  She ordered some xrays of my hips joints since that is where the pain is.  And they took another eight or nine viles of blood for testing.  She is wondering now about her original diagnosis, because I don't have pain in  my shoulders as I did before.

I thought I had read here though, that PMR does settle in one spot.  So now it is a waiting game to see if I start to hurt.  If I do, she said she could get me Enbrel from the company.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't start hurting.  Mary

Mary, I am taking methotrexate and prednizone and darvoct and i am still in pain, is there anything to help this situation, i am all puffy from the pred and i do not know what the metho is doing to me.  I think the only thing that helps the pain is the darvocet. I am so discouraged I was down to 7 mg of pred and had a disastrous flare and am back up to 30 mg. and the metho.  I  think the plan my rheumy has is to start to taper me again off the pred. now that i am taking the metho.

Wish you all the luck

Georgiana
Georgiana,

Gee, I sure hope the methotrexate helps you. I know it is supposed to take a few months to kick in. But if it works, and you can get off the prednisone, that would be good. Can you keep taking the darvocet while you are tapering? Sometimes it is such a toss-up, whether one wants to be pain free and put up with all the puffiness, weight gain, and other prednisone side effects, or to try and chuck the whole mess of meds and try to tough it out. I don't think it would be good in your case to try to tough it out. You've got too much pain. I am sure praying for you to get some relief soon!

Reni
It's a tough road sorting out all this diagnosis & med. stuff, and Reni is right - you have too much pain at present. 
Hope you get the relief you need soon Mary - you deserve it.

OMG  WE ARE ALL WALKING AROUND IN ONE BIG DAZE....went to my dr. yesterday and had blood tests down......21 ticked off on the requisition plus urine sample.....thought I would have to have a blood transfusion before I got out of there.

        I am not on pred since Jan. only Tylenol arthritis, have pain in knees, hips, still have pains big time in back of neck, but was xrayed as OS in neck, cervical spondylitis?  On demeral (off now) Had acupuncture, physio theraphy, naturalist therapy, also cranial therapy....aqua therapy....the only thing I can say is I had started drinking 2 oz. of tart cherry juice in a glass of water a day,,,,when the weather is dry I seem to be doing better.  Broke out big time with hives, itch????don't know why?

DONT want to go back on pred.     Willl start putting shot of vodka in cherry juice instead of going down that road again.



Will let u know blood results asap................hang in there all of you.

rose

I see I have an error in my message.  It should read that I am NOW OFF of prednisone and OFF Methotrexate.  I'm just on over the counter meds. 

I took a couple ibrophen a few hours ago and I don't feel too much pain.  My knees which hurt the worst have twinges when I get up from a chair.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Thank you for your kind concerns.     Mary

Mary, that is wonderful that you are off the drugs, did you have a problem getting off the pred? 

I went to the rheumy today down to 25 mg of pred. and still getting shots for methotrexate, i have to go for some blood work, today i feel pretty good not so fatigued and not so much pain, every day is so different, let's hope for the best.

Rose, the vodka sounds good in the cherry juice
were the hives from the cherry juice?
what does 21 on requisition mean?  sorry for sounding stupid.
Georgiana
Georgiana,

How wonderful to hear that you are improving!!! May it continue. Thanks for letting us know.

Rose, did you go out in the sunshine after drinking the vodka and cherry juice? Many years ago, I had a glass of wine and went to work in the garden. I ended up with hives all over. First and only time that has happened, and I think it was a combination of the wine and sunshine. Strange.

Reni

Georgiana,

    I think I only had trouble with less prednisone when I got down to 3mg.  I was awfully tired.  I've been off it now 4 days.  I don't seem as tired.  However, I've been taking Advil PM and have been sleeping pretty well; other than I seem a bit lazy in the morning.

The pain I have seems to be about the same I had before I had the PMR flareup last August.  I have had lower back ache/pain for the last 10 years.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can control the pain with over the counter medicine.

I haven't heard the report on all the blood work from the doctor.  

The discussion on Vodka and cherry juice sounds good.  Now that I am off Methotrexate, I need to buy some wine again.   I only have a glass of wine on the weekend as sort of a treat, and I've missed it.

Cherry juice itself even sounds good.  I believe that is good for gout, so maybe is good for other pains too.

Mary

I've heard that gin is good for arthritis.  An old remedy was to eat a handful of raisins soaked in gin every day.  I haven't tried it for PMR, but you never know!  (Gin is made from juniper berries, I believe, which do the anti-inflammatory work, I think.)starbright don;t you just love that Advil PM???!!! It makes me sleep like a baby! I wonder if it is ok to take longterm? Or at this juncture do we care Mary,

Well, you can tell my brain isn't working. I hit the "post reply" before I tyoed a message. Dumb.

You sound kind of like me with the back pain. I have had mine for about 9 years. It started with a couple of mildly herniated (but very painful at the time) discs, and since then things have been degenerating further. I keep telling my dr. it's muscle pain, but she says it is referred pain from the back, and yes muscle pain because the muscles are trying to support the "bad" areas of the back. I am not sleeping well even with 50 mg of trazodone at night. I am going the naproxyn sodium route at the moment. Have tried Tylenol PM with not too much success. Maybe I should try Advil PM. Still battling plantar fasciitis in my heel, too. The cortisone shot only helped about 50%, and now it is back full force, so end up limping if I have to walk very much. Bummer.

I am learning so many interesting things on this site. And not just medicine related - the cherry juice and vodka, and other such "helps" are fun to read about, and maybe try. I like Bailey's Irish Cream myself.

Hmmmm...I've heard of gin and raisins, but I think it was to keep one regular.   Would be worth a try. 

Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory and that is why it works well with the sleep aid.  I had some napersen and for some reason the Ibuprofen works better for me.  I have so many bottles of stuff around here.  I decided a couple night ago to try just to take Ibuprofen rather than the Advil PM which is Ibuprofen and a sleep aid.  Instead I took a generic Tylenol.  I get the Walmart generic brand and they are in the same type bottle.  I just did not sleep well.  Next morning I realized my mistake. 

So last night I took just the Ibuprofen and I slept pretty well.  Like you say the Advil PM is just really good.  I'm afraid of getting hooked on sleep aids.  But I think if you sleep well, your body heels better too.  Tomorrow I won't have to be so "up and at 'em" so I'll take the Advil PM.  It does make me feel lazy in the morning.

Talking about all this good stuff to drink...I realized I could go get a glass of wine since I was off the Methotrexate.   I have a catch in my back tonight, but I was running around all day.  Advil PM and bed is going to feel good!.

I used to have Plantar fascitis.   Story on that is, it is a a typical ailment of hypothryodism.  On this one thyroid site they were talking about taking Selenium, an over the counter mineral, and after taking one 200 mgs., the typical size pill, after about three or four months their feet got better.  One lady told me to "just do it" and see what happens, it won't hurt.  So I did and it was about a big a miracle as the Prednisone was for PMR.   Selemium helps your thyroid.   I still take it.  In fact, my very dear friend that I lost last year to cancer, was told by her doctor to take it after surgery because it helps your cells to heal.  I don't know if you aren't hypothyroid whether it would help you or not.  If you were hypothryoid, I'd insist you take it.  It works that well and has helped all those women over on the thyroid board.   It might help you anyway.  It is only .00 and it won't hurt you.  You could ask your doctor to make sure if you are a bit leary.

I'm wondering if by some stretch of the imagination if Selenium is why my PMR isn't quite as bad as it is.  The way it fixed my feet is why I think that.  I know my doctors have been amazed.  I was surprised that my friend's doctor recommended it to help her heal.

I am still craving cherry juice now, and didn't get around to getting it today.  Tomorrow...I am going to get some.  It is good for gout, so maybe it is good for PMR. 

I hope we all get a good night's sleep tonight.  Hugs....Mary

 

Mary,

I've got some selenium, after reading one of the past posts, but like you said am kind of leery about taking it. I've been told my thyroid is okay, but I wonder if they really check as closely as I've read they should. Could be sub-clinical hypothyroidism?? Maybe I'll just go ahead and give the selenium a try. Thanks for the input.

I, too, have so many bottles of this, that, and the other around. I should just throw a lot of it out, as it doesn't seem to work for me. I'll give the naprsyn a while to see if it works long-term, and then maybe I'll try the Advil PM. That's one I have not tried (although I have tried regular Advil, and it didn't help for pain).

Thanks again.

Reni

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