chronic asthma methotrexate

Hi I know it has been ages since I have been on line. Marriage break up and move of house twice has absorbed all my time along with my son. We have been trying for omalizumab (Xolair) but now his IgE is out of range, so there is no joy there. He is not responding to IV Amonophollin,Steroids no longer work, nor his Terbutaline sub-cut. and consultants are suggesting Methotrexate. I know that this is an old drug and is used for the treatment of cancer, but has any-one any 1st hand experience of this?

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hiya

Ive tried methotrexate last yr as my asthma was totally out of control it worked quite well at first but then i was so susceptible 2 infections as its a chemotherapy drug i got a chest infection in feb this yr and things spiraled out of control.

I think personally that there are better drugs out there methotrexate can and does increase the risk of gettin infections. This yr ive had 6 chest infections 2 batches of pneumonia and septicaemia plus i got a candidaemia due to my immunity bein so low. Think very carefully about it and only go 4 it if every other avenue has been explored is my advice- i wish in a lot of ways i hadnt tried it.

Sorry to be so negative about it but my experience wasnt great-i no it does work well 4 some folks tho so if all other avenues hav been explored it may b worth a try just make sure u get regular blood tests to check white cell counts are high enough to fight infections!

Good luck wit ur decision i hope other peeps post their experiences to to give a more balanced view of it as a treatment. Take care n gud luck. Kitkat Xxx

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Hi

Thanks for that. He is on constant oral steroids 10mg, but is having at least one recovery course every month (40mgs) We have tried Terbutaline sub-cut, which worked for 18 months, he was on the max adult dose and he was only 11 years old!!

He doesn't respond to theophollin, so I really don't know the way forward.

Have you tried Carers Resource, they are supposed to be very good with dissability. My son has been registered for 5 years and quite honestly, I really could not cope without the money. I really do hope you can sort out your financial situation, as if being asthmatic is not enough to deal with!!

The Dla are pretty quick.

Good luck

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Hi there, my son has difficult to control asthma and is 12. He was agreed funding through RBH even though his IgE levels were above the required level. On the first test they were just over 1000 then dropped slightly to 950. He was on a 16 week trial and was having injections 4 weekly, then on week 14 we were told it would need to start again as he was only getting half the amount of Xolair he should have been getting. He is now on week 3 and having injections every fortnight. I was concerned about him having such a new drug but as his asthma is predominatly allergy based I thought it would be worth a go. He was actually quite good for the first 4 weeks of the original trial but don't think this was due to the Xolair as he was very good for the week before the first injection - from week 4 until now (13 weeks) he has been on daily Prednisolone ranging from 40mg to 25mg. His lung function has not been higher than 65% during this time. I was really disappointed about him having to restart the trial as I had convinced myself it was not working (if anything he became worse) and was actually looking forward to him stopping it. This might sound really daft, but I felt I had to give it a go to see if it helped but was concerned about potential long term side effects so in a way was pleased it was coming to an end.

Having read a bit about methotrexate/ciclosporin/azitioprine I felt this was probably the least 'nasty' of the options so was happyish to give it a go. Can't really help with the Methotrexate but do know RBH are trialling kids on Xolair with Higher than recommended Ige levels. Not sure how much success they have had with this as Jay was the second child they started on it but they are introducing it to new patients all the time at the moment so could find out for you if would help.

Hope Aaron is coping ok at the moment and you get some help from other people regarding the Methotrexate.

Nikki