Hi Everyone - I've just switched to having Methotrexate on Friday nite (20mg) and I have a few questions about the side-effects.. Is it REALLY possible to be feeling Fog Brain right up until Wednesday the next week? I manage about 20 staff, and they will come and talk to me and its like I'm peering at them through a mental cloud! I haven't told everyone the story, so I'm sure they think I am losing my marbles. The thing is, you start to think perhaps its just "you" and I never know how much is the drug! Has anyone else had the same thing? How do you sort out whats "you" and whats the medication? Or should I just stop trying to analyse everything!!
As an aside I also wanted to say how great this website is. Thanks everyone - many times it has really been a source of comfort and brightened my day.
Thanks for the nice words about the website - we're glad to have you, too!
Methotrexate and many of the other RA drugs are well known for making you pretty foggy for several days following your dose. For the fogginess to last almost a week is a little excessive and it may be due to it being the first dose. Any new medication can be quite a shock to the system and sometimes, side effects tend to be worse in the beginning before your body acclimatizes to the new situation. The fogginess will likely subside over time as you get used to the meth and learn to accommodate the fogginess by writing yourself lots of notes, taking a couple of days where you can do less (which I realize was your thinking behind taking it on a Friday), etc. I wrote a post last year about managing side effects that you may find useful.
One of the things I've found helps me get used to a new medication is to start with e.g., half the dose that my doctors usually recommend. This way the side effects will be milder while my body has a chance to get used to it and once that happens, I increase with e.g., the next quarter, once I'm used to that, I bump it up again. This has worked very well for me over time, probably partly because I'm very sensitive to medication and often do very well on a smaller than recommended dose. If this happens again next week, have a chat with your rheumatologist about perhaps trying to lower dose initially - given your job, you need to be on the ball.
That said, it's quite likely that it's not as noticeable as you think it is. It's amazing what you can do on a sort of autopilot and there have been times where I have been convinced I appear to have the focus of a brick and when mentioning it, have been told that the person I was talking to didn't notice. Do your boss and the people you supervise know you have RA? If they do and you feel safe in being honest with them, you may mention that Mondays are little foggy for you while you get used to the medication. However, if nobody knows about your disease, this program it's better better to keep that to yourself until such a time where you may have to disclose your situation