Wednesday, October 15, 2008
I was diagnosed with RA two years ago and started on a Clinical Trial. After 2 years of being in it (it finished in August), I was de-blinded and informed that I was on active Enbrel and MTX, but my blood labs started going crazy. My liver enzymes were elevated and my rheumy decided to take me completely off of it; I am on Enbrel only. I have to go back in December, so that I can have my labs re-checked, maybe he'll put me back on MTX. Anybody in the same situation??
Also had steroids injected in my knees, as I was having a lot of swelling and pain. Feeling better now.
Hope y'all are having a good day.
I was diagnosed with RA about 5 years ago, though I had had the "symptoms" for several years prior to the diagnosis. My father has literally suffered and become completely disabled after living with RA for almost 40 years.
I was initally started on 15mg of MTX once a week along with prednisone and various NSAIDs. After the prednisone and NSAIDs didn't help as well, I started Enbrel along with MTX at the same dosage. Due to liver enzyme, form and function and and other issues, I have varied my MTX dosage, so I feel your pain, so to speak. I also had to curb my love of various adult type beverages as well, in order to leave my liver in peace...much to my dismay.
Currently, the 'ol liver is working properly, and I am tolerating MTX well, though when I first take it on my doseage day, I feel like crap for about 24 hours--not sure if it is all in my head or not. But, bottom line: MTX does help me with pain, inflamation, soreness and combined with Enbrel, I have had no joint degeneration in the past 4 years after starting the DMARD too.
Over the past 4 years, I have tried Remicade, but had to stop due to skin infections which required minor surgery to drain. I also tried Orencia and it worked fine, needing only one infusion a month, but had to stop because of having to be absent from work to get the infusion. While both of these DMARDs worked fairly well for me, I found that they worked better when taken with MTX (also a DMARD, I might add).
I hope you can continue to take and tolerate the MTX. The doseage may need to be adjusted along with various lifestyle changes which all tend to impact liver function.