A day to remember!

[Gottarelax]

Not only I have marvelled at the pomp and ceremony at the queen's funeral today and been in awe of how everyone played their part to perfection, I've also had a perfect rheumy appointment. I was sure it would be cancelled and so grateful that the consultant made extra time to see me. The upshot is that I'll be put on methotrexate and have all the regular blood tests and follow up's with the nurse that is usual for this. He also gave me a steroid injection in my frozen shoulder so hoping that very soon I'll start to feel like my old self again.

Just one little question...how long should it take for the methotrexate to start having an effect?

[Oshgosh]

my rheumatologist appointment today was cancelled.I haven’t seen a rheumatologist since before Covid. Apparently it will be rescheduled

[Gottarelax in reply to Oshgosh]

Oh no sorry to hear that. I hope they will be able to give you another soon!

[Oshgosh]

I’m just relieved it wasn’t the Interstitial Lung Disease appointment that was cancelled.if I was waiting for diagnosis I would have been upset xx

[Runrig01]

unfortunately it takes up to 12 weeks to see an improvement usually. It can be longer if they are tapering you up from a low dose. I did find once I’d been on it a while, if they increased the dose, I improved quite quickly though. Glad you still got your appointment though.

[Gottarelax in reply to Runrig01]

ah so his ´ it’ll take a few weeks’ was a bit of an understatement. He was clear that he didn’t want to give more steroids but to be honest, if I can get away without remaining on them to a point where I have a long slow withdrawal process I’ll be happier so I’ll see how things go…my current course finishes next week.

[Marionfromhappydays]

brilliant, so glad you had a useful appointment. When i started MTX I'm sure they said around 12 weeks but it did help quicker than that i think.

Like Maureen said above they can play around with your dose to get the optimum effect.

[Boxerlady]

So pleased that your appointment went well 😊 I started on Methotrexate and Hydroxychloroquin and my dose was tweaked as and when necessary. The nurse also gave me a general steroid injection a couple of times, gave me pain relief advice and referred me to the rheumy OT so now that you're in the system, hopefully you'll get lots of support. Onwards and upwards! 💪

[oldtimer2]

I would emphasise that it's important to let the rheumy team know how you are coping. If you are not and still have a lot of pain, tell them or they will assume you're OK. Yes, it may take 12 weeks for methotrexate to be effective (although it's often sooner), but don't think that there isn't anything else that can be done to help!

And if you're in distress, not coping or fed up with it all, tell us - we've been there too!

[Gottarelax in reply to oldtimer2]

Thank you...it's good to hear that. I am a little reticent to complain of aches and pains. It took me to no longer be able to dress myself to get to the doctors in the first place!

It's wonderful to have this forum to post to when uncertain. I'm afraid it's all questions at the moment but one day I hope that I can give back too.