I've suffered from RA for 25 years and gone through the list of medicines prescribed by the experts, one I believe helped me tremendously is Methotrexate, for 12 months I've now been diagnosed as in remission from RA and have none of the usual aches and pains or stiff joints, being someone who's been in hospital with problems from RA to now being free of pain is life changing, Methotrexate has always been my go to medication for years, thousands and thousands of people take Methotrexate to help them fight RA, but suffers who have felt the benefits of Methotrexate don't tend to shout it from the roof tops, so you get a uneven balance of suffers on here, unfortunately weak minded people can be put off taking a medication that could like me hopefully one day be in remission, so please think before you give Methotrexate bad press because for everyone it doesn't help there are many more it does, the difference is they don't come on hear, so I just had to give a shout out for a medication that's helped millions all over the world.
Methotrexate, now in remission. : I've suffered from RA... - NRAS
Methotrexate, now in remission.
It was great for me for 5 years until it started affecting my liver but everyone’s different so great that your in remission long may it continue xxx
Thats awesome, I've just started taking it and posts like this really give me hope x
So glad it works for you, long may it continue x
So pleased to hear MTX has worked for you and it’s great you’re in remission now.
Thank you for sharing your good news as it will help to reassure others on their RA journeys. 👏🏻
Fantastic!!!!! so pleased for you!!!! always great to here
Great news for you Pitbull. Long may it continue.
Some people are too quick to share their tales of how awful mtx is/was for them and as you say people ( especially newly diagnosed) are put off taking it. We have seen many on here saying that.
Spot on Pitbull. Anyone threatening to take my MTX away will have a hard job. Yes, there have been early difficulties but now I reckon I'm about 95% normal. It works for me and I'm so grateful for it. Thank you for posting this
Great post - thank you 👍I'm also doing well on Methotrexate in combination with other DMARDS and am quite happy to think that I may well be on it permanently; I'm just grateful that these medications are available to us 😊
I wish I'd seen this post when diagnosed and told methotrexate was my only choice! I saw the horror stories on the Internet and put off taking it until, in the end, I had to give in. I had lots of side effects as the doseage kept being increased - managed to overcome most with the help of the great people on here (but still have some!) BUT I'm tons better and could not function without it . I'm grateful every day for it. Thanks for posting as I'm sure you'll help newly diagnosed and those who are in the early stages of taking MTX.
Well said Pitbull. I've been on it just over twelve months and a few months in it was increased, that's when I had problems but it was then decreased back down to what it was before and SSZ added (which I no longer take). I find that MTX is doing the job and hopefully will continue to do so. x
Whilst I don’t exactly shout it from the rooftops, well in normal conversation you don't, but I've often said something like you'd have to fight me to come off it & give my honest experience of MTX with over 11 years experience on both tablets & injections & at various doses. I’m pleased you've achieved remission, that really is great.
We all know why MTX is feared by some, not helped by what it was first developed for & that it's still used today. Neither as it's often the first experience of DMARDs (sometimes meds even) the newly diagnosed have. As long as those of us who have the experience can reassure the concerned from our own perspective, in a caring & careful way, then we'll be doing all we can to help ease those concerns. Hopefully that way we help someone start to feel better about MTX & taking their first dose... & even better when they start to feel the benefits of it.
Yeap... ditto!! MTX has been my only med (6 years on from diagnosis) and I am still teaching 4 days a week (I was full time until the beginning of this term as I had applied to drop to a 4 day week in February as I could afford the pay drop 😎).
My advice would be ‘give it a chance’ as all meds have side effects but not all people suffer from them.
All the best
Ali
what a great piece of info for those just starting out on our MTX journey and great news that you are now in remission 
What a great post Pitbull! Thanks so much for taking the time to write it! I am so happy that you are in remission and long may this continue for you too!
I am a newbie to MTX (2 months). Although I have some side effects from the tablets and about to move over to the injection next week I remain very positive that this medication will be the one that will allow to me get off the prednisolone in time and work well with the SSZ. This post is just what I needed as I embark onto the injections. Thanks so much once again. 😁
Methotrexate got me out of bed and back to work. It was a life saver. I have now been on it for 19 months and I have my life back. I drink 4 ounces of bing cherry juice every morning. I don't know if it helps, but there has been a lot of research on it and I believe it has helped me. Check it out. In the meantime, I encourage trying natural foods to keep you going. Take care.
Well said PB....I so agree with you but I fear you are whistling in the wind! If only more like you could just pop in to say how well they are doing on Mtx!
I have been on MTX just over a year now on 22.5mg, I was scared going on it because it felt like a scary drug. My story’s last year about my pain and fatigue were a sad journey for me one I do not want back. Neither SSZ OR hydroxychloroquine touched my RA.
My goodness all I can say is I have never been a runner, but since lockdown I’ve become a little runner and I feel like I have been given my life back due to MTX. I feel it’s helped with my heart when running, I feel stronger I don’t know if that’s me imagining it but I can’t explain it.
I felt I wanted to reply because this is my experience, long may we all stay as strong and as well as we can x
"weak minded people" ? Really?
I am pleased for that the stuff is working for you. It is not quite the same for me. We all react differently, weak minded or not.....
Yeah that was a cheap and unnecessary jibe (unintentional or otherwise).
I consider myself very lucky to have had positive results with the only RA med I’ve had to try... what really pips me off is when I hear of others who have been told that ‘they have to fail’ a med before being offered a different type (I.e. a biological med) - like it’s their active and personal fault that a med doesn’t reap the desired result ... a change of wording .... ‘we need you to try a couple of different other meds to see if one of them is comparable for you before trying a biological’ would be a much more caring and accurate statement!
😔semi-rant over... I’m tired and need my 🛁 and then 🛏
It’s easy to be freaked out about what you read on the internet, felt a bit of nausea at the start but other than that didn’t experience any side effects. It definitely helped me but certainly nowhere near what I would consider ‘remission’. Good luck hopefully it continues.
I have taken mxt for 18 years and I have always championed it as it has changed my life completely, with no side effects whatsoever.
Yep - me too! Long may it last!
Well said Pitbull. A very encouraging message to all the newbies. Methotrexate has been grand for me for many many years and I am just off for a seven mile walk. !
I’m totally with you on this, I often think this. When I speak with my Rheumatologist he says it’s sadly the ones who are in a bad flare that turn to this media & like you say & understandably worry re side affects, especially if newly diagnosed!! Eat well take the meds & get it under control!! Delighted to hear though you are enjoying your well deserved remission, it amazes me once we are feeling good how quickly we forget about all that pain we went through.. I’m really pleased for you - happy pain free days!!
Pitbull, this is a fantastic post to read. I am also doing very well on MTX, but have only been on it for 19 months. I agree that it's much easier to find scary accounts of it than praise, which is a shame. However, that doesn't mean the bad experiences some people write about are not true or that people who are worried by them are weak minded. Perhaps you had in mind something more like timid or anxious? Most people are anxious about starting such a potent drug. I know I was. I hope your post will encourage them to take the plunge, but please don't castigate them as weak minded if they decide against it.
Long may your remission continue and thank you for giving us your success story.
Couldn’t agree more; thank you for posting such a balanced reply 😊
So pleased to hear your good news. I am always positive about Methotrexate when I post. I have been on it for 34 years now and it was a life changer for me. It was the first drug that slowed progression of the disease in my case. Prior to introduction of this drug there were no effective drugs to treat RD resulting in irreversible joint damage.
I am now 69 and have had this disease for 46 years and have numerous deformities and have had lots of joints replaced. The outlook for people with RD is much improved due to development of drugs to treat us. Methotrexate is part of the armoury along with Biologics etc. I also started Rituximab 12 years ago and my disease is fairly well controlled. Also take Prednisolone and Celecoxib.
Best wishes to everyone.
Pam
That’s why we must advocate that each drug is different for everyone and you need to try it first. Very happy for you in remission
Thank you, I’ve been reading all the negative posts, so it it reassuring to read your post as I am in my second week of these meds 😘
Thank you so much for sharing your positive experience with MTX . For so many of us new to this med, this gives us hope!
Good to hear you’re in remission. I was on MTX for a year and a half. I got so sick I had to stop but I feel I reached remission also. The arthritis pain I have now is attributed to OA. My RA markers are good. I was good until I had knee surgery which left me in more knee pain than before surgery. Oh well. I can still walk with a limp and pain but I’ll take it! God bless.
It’s very good to hear that you’ve achieved remission with the aid of mtx. I was doing well on it too but at a very low dose even though the nausea to start with was almost unbearable. Injections made a big difference to that but unfortunately my liver wasn’t able to tolerate it and I was pretty disappointed to have to come off it. I can honestly say I gave it a really good go even though it definitely didn’t suit me. I’ve not really ever managed to find anything that worked as well and therefore am still suffering with the debility of R.A. I agree with you that those who reach remission and find their treatment that gives them a life back should definitely shout it from the rooftops and encourage others to try and achieve the same result. There are always those of us though who never manage to ever get to that stage but we keep trying and are ever hopeful that there is a treatment for all of us.
Would not be without my methotrexate, it is a toxic med but keeps me moving and pain free, no brainer!!
Thanks to everyone for their kind words I've been overwhelmed, to give you some perspective of what it means is, I was very active when I was younger Rugby etc one of my favourite activities was golf, unfortunately because of RA I had to give up any physical activities, I now play golf twice a week and it's a six mile walk each time, I've got the battle scars RA tends to leave us with but I can live with that, a couple of things that helped me was, a one or two early nights through the week just to charge the batteries up, flare ups love tired bodies, something else I've done over the last 5 years is, bad coughs flu etc can be difficult to shake off when you're on meds for RA, please talk to your consultant before doing this, but after talks with my consultant when unwell with a bad cold/cough etc have a holiday from Methotrexate to allow the body to fight the cold off, a holiday is to miss taking Methotrexate for one week, I've been under two consultants in recent year both have endorsed this action, of course yours may not so please speak with them before trying this, anyway thanks again for the good wishes to be honest I didn't know you could be in remission from RA but it's like being born again, I pray the same fate is around the corner for you all.
Thanks for posting this. I've been taking Methotrexate for a while now with not many ill effects. I've currently run out of tablets and am waiting for the pharmacy to deliver them, which could be next week. (They're under a lot of pressure.) I normally take my dose on Saturday, so it should have been this morning. From what you're saying, it looks as though I won't be upsetting anything, if I miss a dose for a week? Is that right? Thanks in advance for your help.
That's my experience, when I've caught the dreaded flu bad cold or even a chesty cough a short break up to a week to allow the immune system to fight it off should be okay, so if you miss for a couple of days it shouldn't be a problem, the only time I've had a problem is going the other way, by that I mean taking them a day or two early, once when I was taken into hospital all hell broke out because they had gone through my medication like they do and realised they'd given me Methotrexate two days early from my normal day and that can be quite dangerous but thankfully it wasn't , reading the posts on here I'm quite optimistic for others because it now seems sufferers are prescribed Methotrexate fairly soon after being diagnosed with RA in my day it was quite common to wait 10 years before it was offered to the patient, so hopefully sufferers won't have to wait so long to be in remission, I hope this has been of some help and I wish you all the best for the future.Mike
Yes, same for me, I started MTX immediately I was diagnosed 25 years ago, no side effects and after a couple of years went into remission no NSAIDs needed, or maybe one minor flare every couple of years. Very little damage to my joints (almost undetectable), however quite abruptly 18 months ago I had a major flare brought under control by increasing MTX and using Prednisolone. NSAIDS no longer have any effect, so I take very low dose of Prednisolone when required. It has taken 18 months to get my inflamation markers into normal range again.
Fantastic news. Congrats x
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