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Anyone on Remicade and Methotrexate together??

I will be having my third Remicade treatment in a week. The doctor wants me to also start taking Methotrexate injections ASAP as she feels that I am not improving as fast as she would like to see. I am currently being tapered off Prednisone..currently at 30mgday. Any experience or thoughts you have would be much appreciated.
I have severe Crohn's just diagnosed in March/2013.
 
My son started with Remicade infusions the after a few months MTX was added. He takes his in pill form he was also px'ed 1mg folic acid daily. He has had no issues with the MTX.

I'm going to tag Kwalker as he has taken the MTX injections and can give you his experience with them.

Good luck with the treatment.
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
I do not take either of these but it's not uncommon at all. Your doctors want to give you all the tools they can to counter this disease. In addition the body creates antibodies to remicade and studies show medications like Methotrexate can help in delaying this process and thereby let you stay on the drug longer.
 

crohnsinct

Well-known member
Mydaughter was on Remicade for 2 1/2 months and the doc felt it wan't working without the use of prednisone and that wasn't a long term option. He suggested adding Mtx injections. We decided to do a round of Exclusive Enteral Nutrition (from what I have read EN has better success in children than adults) to try to get her to remission. It worked. Now 14 months after dx we added Mtx pills but that was to treat Remicade induced psoriasis.
 

KWalker

Moderator
Thanks for the tag Clash, and sorry I haven't replied sooner. If you take it as nothing more than opinion from somebody else who has been in the same shoes as you, I would go for it. I've been on just about everything under the sun for crohns and methotrexate gave me the most benefits with the least side effects. First off though, make sure you get the injections and not the oral pills. I've done both and (like many others) got horrible side effects while taking the oral pills. As I'm sure you're aware, people experience different side effects due to different methods of administration.

While taking methotrexate orally, my doctor told me to take the medicine on Friday night or Saturday morning and warned me that there was a good chance I would feel like crap for a few days after and this way I would be home from work. He was right. For the 2 days after I literally spent the whole time on the couch and feeling like absolute crap... But at the time it was worth it because I needed medicine to help my crohns after other meds failed.

Because I had horrible side effects (although nothing serious) from the oral pills the doctor decided to switch me to the injections which would completely bypass the digestion period. I did the injections myself in the top of my leg and had very minor side effects. At first I got headaches for a few days after but that was fixed with tylenol. Some other side effects were fatigue and I also got the occasional night sweats.

I was never on Remicade and Methotrexate at the same time however and went to methotrexate because Remicade stopped working for me.
 
Yes I opted for the injections. The doctor told me that there would be less side effects that way. I will also be taking 5mg of folic acid too to also counteract the effects. Going to take my first shot tomorrow and then I have a Remicade infusion on the 7th. Fingers crossed that I get some relief.
 
Our son is starting Remicade on Monday (1st infusion) and the doctor has him on MTX 12.5MG pills already. He believes MTX will help the remicade work faster and may help avoid antibodies from developing. good luck.
 
Update: The third Remicade treatment in Maydidn't do much for me. Had a follow up colonoscopy in June which showed some areas of healing in my ascending and transverse areas of my colon but the descending area still showed active disease and inflammation. Doctor recommended a double dose of the Remicade so I went for it on July 3rd.......feeling so much better now!! and dare I say it but almost "normal" :) I should have listened to her the first time she recommended the double dose but I was afraid there might be adverse affects.
Now if I could just stop the hair loss :/

Remicade every 8wks
Methotrexate Inj. 25mg 1xweek
 
Hi Jay. I've tried both links mentioned on your post above, but both seem to fail and I'm getting a 'Forbidden' page message. Would you be able to email the working link or a PDF (if it's a avail) to me? I'm happy to send you my email address as soon as I hear from you. Thank you very much in advance! Evgeniy
 
Hi Jay. I've tried both links mentioned on your post above, but both seem to fail and I'm getting a 'Forbidden' page message. Would you be able to email the working link or a PDF (if it's a avail) to me? I'm happy to send you my email address as soon as I hear from you. Thank you very much in advance! Evgeniy
EVGENIY & SonnyBoy, Sorry I've not checked in here in sometime. I did so much research & browsing materials when first diagnosed. Unfortunately the article link is not working. If I find the article today I will repost for you. I shall have a look. As an aside note I am still on Remicade+Methotrexate.
 
Has anyone been able to access the article on remicade and methotrexate?
I found a 2004 article. It's dated but also a good read on REMICADE+Methotrexate. Place in your search engine this query: " Why Remicade and Methotrexate are used together for perianal fistualizing Crohns". The search actually revealed another 2004 article that was a good read on the subject. Again from Wiley. For some reason the 2011 article is not being highlighted at this time.
 
I take both. Do remicade every 4 weeks and take methotrexate orally with folic acid daily. Also on gabapenten and tapering off prednisone. No side effects and feeling much better.
 
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