Guest guest Posted September 30, 2006 Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 Becky, have you tried Methotrexate via injection? I too have terrible stomach problems so I give myself an injection once a week and bypass the GI system..just a sugestion for you. I wish doctors would suggest this more often. Ruth In a message dated 9/29/06 1:49:49 PM Pacific Daylight Time, macandtosh626@... writes: > > > Saw eye dr yesterday and he said sarcoid inflammation left eye (for some reason only affects left) and placed me on prednisolone eye drops every hour until better then couple of times per day...also started me on Nevanac eye drops twice per day (is an NSAID for the eye...never heard of it before). Right hand (mostly thumb) hurting and heart doing some weird skips so upped my pred by 2.5 mg this morning (my local rheum has told me to do this if have a flare). > > > Becky, I know that initially it's important to use those pred drops every hour, and then SLOWLY wean off them. If you go off too quickly (from hourly drops to every 4hrs to every 8 hrs to 2x day, etc) you should find you have better success at your eyes not continuing to go back into flare. > Just like oral pred-- the eye drops HAVE to be tapered also. > > As for the thumb pain-- uping the pred is ok-- but if you see that your flare is more systemic (you have eyes and sarc arthritis right now) so it is effecting more than one system- you really need to add something other than the prednisone to get this under control. > > Both Methotrexate and Plaquenil are good 'steroid' sparing adjuncts that should be added one at a time. You will find that with the MTX- alot more of the arthritic part will mellow out. > > Also, I can't stress enough the issues of hydration and sugar control when we go into flare. Since all our body joints and ligaments should be " floating " in synovial fluid-- any smallest amount of dehydration causes acute pain. > > Do take care, > Tracie > NS Co-owner/moderator > > > > > --------------------------------- > All-new Yahoo! Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 1, 2006 Report Share Posted October 1, 2006 My son did the methotrexate injections for a while (for his Crohn's Disease) and they are quite easy to do. I forget if you're one of the former nurses on the site, but none of my immediate family are health care workers at all and we had no trouble at all learning to do the injections. It's just a subcutaneous injection rather than one that needs to go into a vein. It's so odd that doctors recommend different things. My son's doctor *only* recommended the injections--thought that oral methotrexate was far too dangerous for anyone to take! We eventually had to give up the injections, switching to oral 6MP, because just this small injection was causing 1-2 days of intense neuropathic pain and my son was afraid of the pain becoming permanent in his legs. But I think they're definitely worth a try! Best, Debby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 1, 2006 Report Share Posted October 1, 2006 Debby,Thanks so much for your input. I'll ask my rheum when I see her about this. I am a nurse who misses my profession a lot. It's funny though how pain and problems can put things in a real perspective...now I just want to live and be with my family. Have had a very bad night and day today with left leg/foot pain that feels lik,e burning and even hurts to have clothes touch the areas. Took Vicodin and it has taken the edge off but this is the worst I've had to date. Also, leg and foot feel numb in spots and jerk uncontrollably...sounds like SFN. Got to get through this flare. B/c of the steroids I'm taking a total of over 200 units of insulin per day (5 separate shots). Seems like this disease has taken me over. I'm tired. Again, thanks for your reply.Best to all,Becky fDeborah Merritt wrote: My son did the methotrexate injections for a while (for his Crohn's Disease) and they are quite easy to do. I forget if you're one of the former nurses on the site, but none of my immediate family are health care workers at all and we had no trouble at all learning to do the injections. It's just a subcutaneous injection rather than one that needs to go into a vein. It's so odd that doctors recommend different things. My son's doctor *only* recommended the injections--thought that oral methotrexate was far too dangerous for anyone to take! We eventually had to give up the injections, switching to oral 6MP, because just this small injection was causing 1-2 days of intense neuropathic pain and my son was afraid of the pain becoming permanent in his legs. But I think they're definitely worth a try! Best, Debby All-new Yahoo! Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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