What do you do to ease Methotrexate side effects?

[MarlenaMarie]

Greetings all! I'm an arthritis newbie - I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis on March 1st but my symptoms started nearly a year ago. My main symptoms are swelling/pain in my feet and ankles. I've got up 1.5 shoe sizes me feet are so swollen.

I am on my 4th week of Methotrexate 20mg injections and I know it can take several months to see improvement. I am hoping to be able to last the full 6 months at least but I swear the side effects of the medication is almost worse than the arthritis! I am nauseous **all** the time! My hair is already falling out in clumps. And for some reason I have a very hard time sleeping - I just feel "amped up" all the time if that makes sense.

I'm taking folic acid 1mg everyday, along with Vitamin D supplements which is supposed to help. And I have anti-nausea medication but I try to use those sparingly because they make me constipated.

Does anyone have any useful tips on how to ease the side effects?

Thanks!

[helixhelix]

1mg folic acid is quite low, most of us take 5mg. Also drink lots of water. Failing that you could ask your rheumatologist if you could drop down a few doses and build up more slowly. Many people start on 10 or 12.5mg and then build up.