BW- that is loads of really usefull stuff to know!!! Thank you!! I will be taking a tablet every week and she did mention the folate, but never mentioned i might feel off, so i will be taking the tablet sat night so DH is home with us on sunday!! Very useful to know!! Just in case!!
I am looking at getting a merina put in, i havent been able to because i was also getting infections from my hands (staph) and it meant my body would most like;ly freak out about it, so i will be looking into that, we are 99% sure we are done in the baby making business so i am not too worried about those side effects at the moment!
So i guess i will be going for my chest xray then!! I think i will give it a go, but i am sure i will be asking loads of questions once i start lol!!
Oh and my derm could bulk bill me the first lot of tests. will it be different for the next ones??? I may see if the gp can do it instead, i am pretty sure everything is getting sent to her, i just havent been back there since i started seeing the derm.
One thing I forgot to mention... If you vaccinate your kids, you need to be really careful if they are given a live virus vaccine. Rotavirus was fun - that was two weeks in gloves to change dirty nappies, and I still caught it from Sam once. MMR was also stressful, but we coped with nobody getting sick. The chicken pox vax - we skipped that and will worry about it when Sam's older if he doesn't manage to catch them.
Immune suppressants are scary, but they are also life-changing.
Thanks - yeah DD will be due for her 12 month ones in a few months... I might delay them a bit - or actually maybe i will do them early, before i start the meds.. I might look into that actually. I see the Dr on the 9th of June and DD is 12 months on the 3rd of July.. I might look at getting them done early then I am ok for 6 months with out having to worry! Thanks so much for sharing all your experience!! It has been really helpful!!
So how are you going now that you can't take the methotrexate?? Are you managing your arthritis ok??
I've been allowed to go on to a different class of drugs all together. They are called biologic agents or tumour necrosis factor alpha blockers (but could be inhibitors). I have an injection once per fortnight, and I'm actually doing quite well with it. Unlike the mtx, they have started working very quickly (did anyone mention that it may be 6-8 weeks before you start to see results from taking mtx?). So after my very first injection I actually had my first pain-free day in years. Get a few more injections in and I'm almost making it to the end of the two weeks before I get sore. I inject tonight and I've woken incredibly sore, but that's ok. I know relief is coming, and quite soon too.
I've just found out I have a liver condition which means I can no longer take things like prednisone and must avoid all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, so I'm now down to only paracetamol and codeine for pain relief, so it's a good thing I've got these biologics going or I'd not be able to move at all. There's very strict rules for who qualifies to get these drugs - two injections have a full cost of $1774, but because of my PCC I only pay $5.60. Could you imagine paying that much for medications every month?!?!
That would be crazy to pay that much!!!! No matter how good it was!!
So if it takes 6-8 weeks to have effect. would that mean i would stay on the prednisone until it starts working or i would have two months of essentially nothing?? (coz that would cause serious hand blisters and stop me from doing basically anything!!!) I think i should pay you the $100 buck a month i have been paying my specialist lol you have had more info in two days than she has given me in nearly six months lol!! Although I know its all down to rememebring to ask questions.. i still walk out of the rooms and then ten minutes later i kick myself coz i have forgotten to ask something!! Even when i write it down!!!
Ohh on a completely un medical related queiry.... did the methotrexate (i keep going to write meth as an shortening.. but it just looks wrong lol) help with any weight loss??????? I have been slowly stacking on the kg's after DS, adn then again after DD and now i just still keep putting it on. i have stated excercising and it slows down the weight gain, but doesnt help me loose any.. so just wondering if maybe its somehow related and if maybe the meds might help a little with either me not gaining any more and maybe helping me loose some!!
If it were me, I'd stay on the prednisone until the mtx is starting to work - but you'll have to talk to your specialist about that.
The weight gain is quite simply down to the prednisone. In my experience, while on prednisone you gain weight. Exercising and watching your diet can slow it, but I've never been able to reverse it until I'm off it. I imagine at your dosages it would be fairly similar. I don't think the mtx will help with weight loss on its own, but it should allow you to get off the pred and make it easier to lose weight. I've also been stacking on the weight (even without pred!) and now find myself weighing the same as my highest weight during pregnancy. It's depressing, but I'm now getting to the point where I can start exercising again - need to start slow and gently, but I know I can start to do something about it now.
If it were me, I'd be asking your Dr what he thinks you should do regarding taking the steriods at the same time. Personally, I found the MTX worked quite quickly - don't forget that BW is taking it for a completely different issue and for her circumstances it may have taken longer to work. Within 2 weeks of taking it I found that all the redness on the plaques had nearly gone and within a month I saw a remarkable change in the plaques and they were all but gone in most places - some of the larger areas were more persistent though and did take up to 2 months to clear up. But I had a severe guttate flare up and had psoriasis over 80% of my body at the time.
It is the type of drug that you really do need to try and then find the right dosage amount. I am on a large US forum for psoriasis and some have found a small dose works well, some found they need a larger dose and for some it doesn't work at all. You really need to be asking your Dr these questions because we can only tell you our personal experiences which will obviously be quite different to yours.
Last edited by Trillian; May 27th, 2011 at 05:12 PM.
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