Medication -

[Sunshine46]

Hi there,

Been a while since I posted so hope someone can give me some advice.

I have recently had a severe flare up and it is not responding to steroid treatment, today doc put me on Methotrexate, but it scared me a little when he mentioned it was a type of chemo drug, has anyone had any experience of taking this medication, did you have any nasty side effects?

Also he mentioned remicade, but it was not available at the clinic ( live on a small island) so have to try elsewhere, again I have read on here about it and seems to be good.

Just wondered if anyone had tried both types, and which best suited them?

Thanks , in advance

S xx

 

[Jeff D.]

I have not had any experience with that drug but a lot of the drugs they use on us are chemo drugs. 6-mp is a drug that helps with leukemia.

 

[Brando]

yeah these drugs fall under the "immunosuppressive" category meaning they calm your immune system down from attacking your own body. it's the same concept as giving people prednisone and other drugs for organ transplants for the rest of their lives so their body wont attack the new organ.

i took MTX for a while and it, like any other chemo drug, will make you tired and susceptible to infection. sore throats are common and it made me feel like crap pretty much. hope i'm not scaring you to death but these drugs are known to do this.

be sure to have regular blood work done to check your liver function while on mtx and i would highly suggest not drinking alcohol at all while taking it. i am not a doctor yet so talk with your doc about side effects etc. and what you need to do.

 

[Sunshine46]

Thanks for your replies, yeah I will stay off the alcohol as I find it only aggravates things, hopefully it will work quickly and I won't need to take it for too long.

Don't worry you aren't scaring me to death ! I was interested to hear of other peoples experiences and I know we all react in different ways

Looks like the remicade isn't an option here as none of the hosps or pharmacies stock it :-(

Cheers!
Sx