Anyone like me

Hi people,

I'm on 5mg of pred per day and 10mg of methotrexate once per week, anyone out there on the same.

I've just had a week of bad flare and wondered how much any of you up your meds and what extra meds you take to help, my shoulder pain has settled down abit but still inflamed and tender, I've never been this long with a flare up before ?

[Sue8]

HI Zusan

I am on 20mg MTX and 20mg pred at the moment. I have PMR also (polymyalgia rheumatica) which is the cause of my shoulder and neck pain. The rheumy tried to dismiss that I had it along with the RA but then in my diagnosis letter he added the PMR. Have you been on higher dose pred? I keep trying to reduce but flare when I get to 12mg so have to go back up.

I was able to increase and decrease my pred as required when I was just on that but now rheumy tries to dictate what I should be taking but if I need more or less then I sort myself as I would rather be pain free. I do want to be off the pred but for now it's doing a job.

Take care

Sue

[helixhelix]

hello to both of you....I'm on a completely different combination of drugs as take 3 DMARDS (MTX, sulpha and Hydroxy). I started with pred & MTX but when it was clear that MTX alone wasn't enough for me I had the others added in. And I was happy with that, and the to be able to drop the pred, as Steroids are not good to take long term if there's another choice that works for you (there isn't for some people). And all the reading I've done makes me wonder a little bit about why you both have been kept on the MTX/steroids mix? Have you tried other DMARDS and they've not worked? If not, do talk to your rheumy teams about having combination DMARDS instead? Or even if they just increased the dose of MTX Zusan as you're on a low dose? To me if I'm flaring that means there's inflammation, and that means I'm risking permanent damage. We' re all different, with different medical histories, so maybe your docs have done this for a very good reason, but personally if I was flaring like you are I'd be back on the phone to them asking for my meds to be reviewed. polly

[hamble99b]

I'm on 5 pred a day and 12.5 weekly of mtx.

[hamble99b in reply to hamble99b]

and 50 of pregabelin twice a day.

[Hidden]

Hi, thanks for the replies,

I agree about relying on pred being wrong, I think that is why my doctor put me on the metho to eventually get me off them, cause I hate taking them too.

My doctor rang to check on me yesterday and when I told her I had only upped my dose by 21/2 mg for my flare up she said its not enough and can go right up to 20mg if needed for a short while to get over the flare, I hate taking them all, and feel that this bad week is just the start of a lot worse to come.

I can't take below 5mg sue, but apparently that is quite a low dose anyway...

Thanks again guys, it's nice to whinge to people who understand cause your the only ones who do...xx

[Victoria-NRAS Partner Moderator NRAS]

Hi Zusan

Glad to see that you managed to get hold of your doctor. Just a word of caution that while it's good to share experiences on here this should never be used to determine how to change the doses of your own medication, as everyone is different. Not saying that this is what you were doing, but I just thought it was worth mentioning it on this thread.

Kind regards

Victoria

(NRAS Helpline)

[Hidden]

Yes Victoria,

No two people are the same, I know that too well !

It's just nice to know that we are not on our own ..