Any reason not to take methotrexate late?

[JanieJ]

Good morning everyone,

Has anyone had any experience with taking methotrexate two days late, are there any negatives or should I leave it and wait until the next dose?

This would be my third dose and my concern is that if I take it two days late and then on the usual time in 5 days will this acerbate and side effects that I may be having ( gastric/intestinal upset etc) due to the shorter time before the next dose?

Many thanks.

[helixhelix]

You have to leave 7 days between doses, especially as you are so new to it. If you take it late and want to get back to your preferred day of the week you have to do it day by day. Eg this week thursday, next week Friday, then Saturday and so on until you arrive at your preferred day..

[JanieJ in reply to helixhelix]

Thank you for this. Would it be best to wait until the next dose to get back on the day that the hospital expect my bloods to be done? The nurse knew I might not be administering this weeks dose. I could of course ask them, but due to the shortages there atm they are unable to respond as quickly as they would like so I may not get an answer until next week.

[Boxerlady in reply to JanieJ]

I've never been asked to get my bloods done on a certain day just been told the number of weeks between tests; when I asked the nurse whether it mattered if I couldn't have the test on the date on the form she said no.

[JanieJ in reply to Boxerlady]

Oh that's interesting, I was under the impression that it had to be two weekly exactly from the dose day for accuracy.

I'll check when I next speak to them as that would be helpful as I couldn't get a blood test at the surgery until the day after and was thinking I was going to have to go to the hospital to get it done.

Thank you 😊

[helixhelix in reply to JanieJ]

When i first started I had to have blood tests every two weeks, then 3, then 4 and so on. But it was always pretty open - 2 weeks was anything less than 3!! Ne er precisely 14 days.

[Gilliancheche in reply to JanieJ]

I had 2 weekly blood tests for 2 years. In that time I worked out I got a more acceptable result if I had them a day or 2 before MTX rather than a day or 2 after. The latter would leave me with extremely low white cells, the former they would have had time to recover slightly.

[Boxerlady in reply to Gilliancheche]

I remember now that at the beginning the nurse said that it was best not to have a blood test close to Methotrexate day; luckily Friday is usually the easiest day for me to have one because of work and I inject on a Saturday so that works well despite me having forgotten that conversation!

[Wobbies]

Patient leaflet in mine says to miss that dose and carry on as normal the next week.

[JanieJ in reply to Wobbies]

Thank you 👍😊

[Wobbies in reply to JanieJ]

You're welcome

[bpeal1]

Here’s the advice from the NHS website. nhs.uk/medicines/methotrexate/

NHS website

[GillB45]

If I am missing a dose - I always wait until my next dose is due. You can miss a week if needed. Hope this helps xx

[Knip]

When this has happened to me I have taken the MTX and then adjusted the day I next take it to seven days later. I find that is better than missing a dose. xx

[Hidden]

I would go with Knip on this one..

[JanieJ]

Thank you.