my meds! its like they send me into a flare? who else has had this happen? recently increased mtx. started enbrel three weeks ago. is this normal?
kel
Often I'll feel worse the day after my meds; but begin to feel better the next day. If you've just increased your MTX it's normal to take several weeks to adjust to the change.I am new but the first few weeks I was taking the MTX I would get what I called the 24 hour flare. It would start that evening and then go away in about 24 hours. I also had a mouth sore once right in the back of my throat, now that really hurt because I had trouble swallowing. But again, it was only the 24 hours after taking it. I am supposedly increasing it next week, I will let you know if I have any symptoms. I did follow the advise I found here, taking with food, drinking a ton of water and the folic acid has really helped.
I have a "down day" after taking mtx. The mtx increase adenosine in your system. Adenosine is one of the things that is responsible for taking care of inflammation and it also promotes sleep. Which explains why I am so tired the day after my mtx shot.
Hydration, taking with food (I inject after I eat dinner), and taking in the evenings help with the side effects. Please keep in mind that taking the folic acid is not just so you can have some energy it is also necessary because mtx can cause a nasty folic acid deficiency. It also helps with the thinning of the hair side effect. And mouth sores...but the moouth sores paritally come from folic acid deficiency. Hi, Strange isn't it? I feel the same way after mtx. Lynda I wasn't on MTX but Predisone definitely made me worse. All you guys say it helped a lot - but for me - it put me in serious hell. My rheumy said it was part of my disease (PRA) - that most meds don't work for us. I have since found out that is not true as many PRA people get relief on the regular meds. Pip It's a form of RA. Big debate on whether or not we're a subset of RA or a totally different disease. Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis. It's characterized (in the beginning) with asymetrical large joint pain and a pain level off the charts - ie - gnaw you're arm off pain. To me it felt like red hot stalagmites rammed thru my shoulder. Can't move cz a sheet or clothes would cause unbelievable agony. The flares usually last a couple of days then disappear - so - by the time you see the rheumy you look fine. It is also the only AI diseases that has a natural remission rate of up to 50% depending on the researcher. This disease is characterized by no joint deformites - but of the 50% that do not remit - they can move on to regular RA which does have joint deformity. I've seen research that says the PRA persons pain level is a direct response to 'isolating' the disease - and it's another reason I chose AP. My body was trying (and failing) to isolate something, I wanted to help it along. :-) Pip
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