Hi there! First questions first I guess. I have no problem at all with methotrexate. I take the folic acid along with it, and I take 10 pills one night a week. I have no side effects. I told my oncologist that I was taking it, and his only question was, for how long? I told him it would probably be forever, and he really didn't have a problem with it. The dosage for arthritis is so much smaller than anything taken as chemo, it hardly counts.
My Hodgkins was first found in1981 (a lifetime ago) from some lumps near my collar bone. No pain, no nothing, just the lumps, that were subsequently biopsied and found to be Hodgkins. I had a surgery to take a liver biopsy and splenectomy, then I did 9 months of chemo therapy, which I responded to very well, and was done with it. I don't think they do that staging surgery anymore, it was major belly surgery. Then twelve years later I found lumps on the other side of my chest, same spot, but opposite side. I saw the same oncologist, he did some research, and they decided it was new disease, just again....so this time I had a lot of radiation, and when I recovered from that, another 9 months of chemo. Again, responding well to everything. (I got really sick from the radiation, but not at all from the chemo that time, new meds!) But now that has been probably 15 years ago, and I have yearly check ups is all. Then in 2003 or so I found out I had psoriatic arthritis, and went through all the meds you must try before the insurance will pay for the biologics (in my case Enbrel to start) After several years the Enbrel didn't do the job, so I switched to Humira. Biologics are usually injectable medicines that are artificially created that really are the thing for psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crones disease, ABS, the list goes on and on of all the things they are finding that it helps. They must tell you the side effects, one of which is "possible lymphoma type cancers" Hodgkins is cancer of the lymph system. I asked my oncologist if I should heed that warning and not take that medicine, and he told me to please, go ahead and take it! The chances of getting a cancer from it are so small, and the benefits of taking it are so big, it was no question to him, so why should it be for me? I feel like those meds are the best thing that ever happened, so I take it willingly. My dad had psoriatic arthritis before they had any of those meds except methotrexate, and I saw him suffer horribly, so I take them happily. I doubt if they even knew you had to take folic acid with the methotrexate at that time. I know not everyone has had good luck with those medicines, but they have kept me out of a wheelchair, away from joint replacements, kept me from going blind with iritis, and on and on. I'm all for it, it you haven't noticed.....I didn't have any tests done for the arthritis, the family history and symptoms were enough. I don't think the unbalances and the falling have anything to do with methotrexate, but the disease has made me weak. The Menier's disease in the ears doesn't help either. Not too long ago I had labrynthitis and some doctors thought I was having a stroke, so I had a full stroke work up in the hospital, and there is nothing wrong with my brain that they can see with an MRI. l like to say that there is nothing in there..........I have had trouble with tendenitis, once in my Achilles heel and now in the shoulders. It hurts.
Oh my I've gone on too long, huh? Sorry. Do please ask questions, though!
