at least it's not lupus

[phaballa]

Now I'm sad that I refuse to give LJ any money, because I no longer have my House "It's not lupus" icon, which is finally appropriate! Oh well. The good news is, I don't have lupus. The bad news is, I definitely have rheumatoid arthritis

Comments

[quiet000001]

Of all of the medications that do the same sort of thing (methotrexate, other immuno-suppressants, the biologics like Humera and Enbrel) mtx is really one of the safest - which sounds bizarre to say because of all the possible side effects, but it's been in use for a long time (particularly compared to the biologics) so they know a lot about what to watch for and how to respond if anything serious does start happening, so. That's why I use it instead of some of the others. (I have psoriatic arthritis, not RA.)

(Meanwhile, doctors keep pushing Enbrel at me like it's the second-coming, and yet I swear every time I walk in to an appointment, there's a new side effect or contraindication they've found out about for it. Uh, yeah. No. MTX works, I know the side effects for me, let someone else find out all the problems with the new drugs, k thx.)

Also, unless you already have liver function problems or liver damage, you CAN drink with MTX, but only, like, a glass for a special occasion, not every night. Which I suppose rules it out if you want to get drunk, but if you just want to have a beer while watching the game once in a while or something, as long as your test results are good, it's really not that big a deal. (The problem is mostly that they've found that telling people "in moderation" doesn't work very well because people tend to drink way more than they should be when drinking "in moderation".)

At least, my dermatologist who put me on it originally said that for the most part, they only see alcohol related problems with mtx in people who are actually legitimately alcoholics with a high intake and don't tell them.