It's bad enough that you feel like crap, gain weight with Prednisone but now I'll be a chubby, puffy bald chick. I'm having a wicked hard time with this. I don't want to even go out. I'm feeling fat and ugly.
Yes....I'm vain. Sorry for the wah wah wah, I just had to.
My hair is pretty curly and this ocean air helps, but I miss my 'thick' hair. Oh well, we'll survive. Chin up and try to 'get off the prednisone' , you will feel better and not be so 'moon faced' and puffy (my eyes were strange looking).
Boy, do we have to constantly work on this disease, the treatment, the results of the treatment. I go in for Remicade today. a couple of hours of sitting there hooked up to an I-V, but it does seem to be helping me!! Thats the important thing.
I hope you feel better, Lynda
Hair loss is my biggest fear about starting MTX. I had my first 15mg dose Friday. I did not have a good weekend. The only thing that made me feel better was the pharmacist saying I could take hair vitamins. I checked because they have herbs in them and I didn't want any interactions. I don't know if they will work, but at least I feel I am not going down without a fight. At least they won't hurt anything.My hair is thinning also from the mtx. It really bites but there isn't a whole lot we can do about it. I look at it as I would rather have my hair thin out than deal with the pain and joint damage from the RA.
Maybe going to a stylist at a good professional salon can help with hints and tips about thinning hair. And also a hair style to help hide it a little bit.
I had some minor hairloss for about a month at the beginning of this spring, but it seems to have halted. I upped my folic acid to twice a day, and also take B100, Biotin. and fish oils. So far so good and have been on MTX for two years.Hi,
I had thinning of my hair when I started MTX but it seems to have steadied and not getting any worse. I go to the hairdressers regularly and have a scalp massage, have had my hair cut differently to give the illusion of more hair if you know what I mean! I told my hairdresser what's happening and he's really understanding and reassures me that it's not getting any worse. A couple of weeks I finally let him colour my hair and it makes a big difference too. I take 5mg folic acid daily (apart from MTX day) and that seems to help. I also take multi-vit and mineral supplement and flaxseed oil (I'm allergic to fish so can't have fish oils). I'm not sure how much all that helps but I do it anyway! Please don't feel bad about being upset about this - it's a majot issue and you need to find a way to deal with it.
Good luck!
KT
Ahhh... your not vain! Everyone wants to keep their hair. I am not vain, but I still would like to not look bald and have my hair I was meant to have.
My hair did not thin from the MTX really bad until I stopped taking it. I was on 7.5mg.
The only med that has REALLY made my hair fall out was Arava. My hair was soo thin, you could see my whole scaple! I mean I have thinning hair now, from being on the pred so long, and I can kinda see my scalp, but when on Arava I you could see my scalp from every angle or view. It kinda looked like cancer paitent in the beginning before their hair falls out completely.
I just remember I HATED to brush my hair or even wash it, because it seemed like everytime I would more and more hair would be gone. I literally had clumps of hair between my fingers after shampooing... I did not even try to use the conditioner on my hair after shampooing.
It was just awful... talk about a blow to your already low self-esteem
I hope the
I find it strange how much our hair means to us. I felt really bad about my hair graying, losing my bueatiful highlights. Then I got on MTX and shed so much of my thick hair that I was down to a normal amount, but then the hair loss slowed way down.
I have not had that problem with Arava.
I will buy a wig or some kind of fall if I get in trouble again. Might as well fix the things that can be fixed. It is important to self esteem, even for men, more so for women.
Hey It is OK to cry when it hurts!
Our hair really does mean so much to us. When my sister went through chemotherapy, I think she was more upset about her hair falling out then she was about her mastectomy. My hair was falling out big time when I was on 7.5 mgs of mtx. I'm on arava now and I've noticed more hair on my brush, but it's not coming out in clumps yet. Maybe this time I'll be lucky.
It sounds like the side effects might go away? I hope so Debrakay. I feel your pain.
Me too, I have heard that coloring it helps it appear thicker. So does a shorter layered cut. I am half Italian and have lots of curly hair, fine but lots of it. I was losing a lot on MTX 20mg, I am back down to 15mg and Arava 3x a week and it has slowed a lot. I would dye my hair anyway as I have a lot of silver up there My hair fell out in big clumps. I was clogging the drain all the time. Started the leucovorin - it took about 6 months for the hair loss to stop, but it did. I think maybe even some of it is growing back now. It's not a small price to pay - it's a BIG price - but you have to do it. The ability to walk is something I'd do almost anything to keep.