I am very happy that the Dr. decided that I was going to be put on Methotrexate for my Rheumatoid Arthritis and thankfully it has no impact on vision. The bonus of taking Methotrexate is that it reduces the chances of heart disease as well but also most importantly it helps prevent further damage to my joints. The bad news is that my left wrists looks like it has some permanent damage from RA. There is also some possible permanent damage in my ankles as well. That is all less than ideal but I just hit 15 years of having RA and am not really surprised but the Dr. seemed more upset about it than me but I guess I expect some damage. I know my Diabetes has taught me that you do your best but you can't prevent it all. All your can do at the end of the day is did your best job you could do. I know my mom experienced some permanent damage to her joints as well. Thankfully not taking plaquenil like I have in the past this drug prevents further damage and also deals with the inflammation as well. Where plaquenil affected the eyes and only dealt with inflammation symptoms. I did a whole bunch of blood work and x-rays to examine what damage has been done and to better help them determine if I need a biologic drug as well most people probably know them as Humira from all the commercials.
I was a little overwhelmed with Methotrexate being a chemo drug. The difference is that I am taking a small dose and they are taking large doses during Chemo. There is a slight increase in a few more hairs lost than usual every month but overall very little hair loss. Most people do well on Methotrexate and with few side effects and I hoping for the same. I did do my home work and was not really sure what drugs they would start me on. The intresting thing about Methotrexate affects you folic acid levels so a prescription of folic acid is required by my Dr. which makes sense. There is some real negatives if you are wanting to have children you can't take the drug until you have been off the drug for at least 90 days. Overall it is weird to think that sending poison into your system would be effective but it seems to be so.
The bad part for me is that to get results quickly I need to take predisone which can cause issues for blood sugar but the Dr. left the decision up to me. She normally never does for diabetics but she said my hands looked like they were painful for me to use. So I decided to go for it because in the past I have gotten my energy back and felt better withing a day or two of starting predisone. Thankfully so far my blood sugars have been pretty good overnight they were normal. I was having a great deal of lows this week but now it seem today I am staying around 95 straight across my Dexcom which is what I like to see. Hoping to keep ahead of bad highs if at all possible. I did call my endocrinologist and they wanted me to send my Dexcom information weekly to help me make the process easier in the long run. My PA said she was happy i picked to go with the predisone because if I had great results using it in the past and helped reduce the pain they thought it was a reasonable thing to do. So overall my visit to the Rheumatologist has been good but I guess I will see over the next couple of weeks to next couple of months if the Methotrexate is work for me or not. I am hopeful to have good results and it would be great to get back to feeling like myself again. Plus I would love to get back to the gym again.
I was a little overwhelmed with Methotrexate being a chemo drug. The difference is that I am taking a small dose and they are taking large doses during Chemo. There is a slight increase in a few more hairs lost than usual every month but overall very little hair loss. Most people do well on Methotrexate and with few side effects and I hoping for the same. I did do my home work and was not really sure what drugs they would start me on. The intresting thing about Methotrexate affects you folic acid levels so a prescription of folic acid is required by my Dr. which makes sense. There is some real negatives if you are wanting to have children you can't take the drug until you have been off the drug for at least 90 days. Overall it is weird to think that sending poison into your system would be effective but it seems to be so.
The bad part for me is that to get results quickly I need to take predisone which can cause issues for blood sugar but the Dr. left the decision up to me. She normally never does for diabetics but she said my hands looked like they were painful for me to use. So I decided to go for it because in the past I have gotten my energy back and felt better withing a day or two of starting predisone. Thankfully so far my blood sugars have been pretty good overnight they were normal. I was having a great deal of lows this week but now it seem today I am staying around 95 straight across my Dexcom which is what I like to see. Hoping to keep ahead of bad highs if at all possible. I did call my endocrinologist and they wanted me to send my Dexcom information weekly to help me make the process easier in the long run. My PA said she was happy i picked to go with the predisone because if I had great results using it in the past and helped reduce the pain they thought it was a reasonable thing to do. So overall my visit to the Rheumatologist has been good but I guess I will see over the next couple of weeks to next couple of months if the Methotrexate is work for me or not. I am hopeful to have good results and it would be great to get back to feeling like myself again. Plus I would love to get back to the gym again.
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