Methotrexate tapering?: Evening all, hope... - Arthritis Ireland

Arthritis Ireland

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Methotrexate tapering?

lkcreedon profile image
lkcreedon
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Evening all, hope you are enjoying a nice weekend 🤗I am currently tapering my Prednisolone since Jan this year. I'm tapering from 10mg using the DSNS tapering plan over weeks. Currently on week 3 of taper from 8.5mg to 8mg. In that time I have been up and down a bit, some small flares and always some aches which would leave me during the morning time. As I was having some difficulty with the taper, my Rhumatoligist put me on 10 mgs of Methotrexate, once per week. I found in this time that the methotrexate didn't seem to be if much help to me. I still experienced aches and pains and flares occasionally. The only side effects from the MTX seemed to be some cramping and diarrhea/loose stools for the first 2 / 3 days following the dose. My bloods were showing up ok.

I rang my Rhumatoligist a couple of days ago and explained that I didn't feel any significant aid from the MTX and that ZI felt the DSNS / 7 week taper worked for me. She agreed that I could stop the MTX and continue with my slow taper outlined on this site. She said we'd review this situation in a few months. I'm happy with that. Today and yesterday my PMR has been good, weather also improved !

After all that my question is can I just drop off the MTX without tapering from it? She didn't say I needed to taper. A friend said that she thought I should taper off the MTX?

What would you suggest please? 😊

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