Comments | phaballa: at least it's not lupus

phaballa

at least it's not lupus

Apr 19, 2010 14:39

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 ( Read more... )

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quiet000001 April 19 2010, 20:59:46 UTC

Hit me up if you have any mtx specific questions since I've been on it in total probably 2 years (maybe more, I forget), at varying doses. For your side effects so far ( ... )

phaballa April 19 2010, 21:25:45 UTC

Man, that really sucks about your health insurance being fucked up right now :/ MTX is supposed to be one of the cheaper drugs for RA, but of course, that doesn't mean much considering the scandalous prices that some drugs go for. Like, my Adderall XR is $160 for the GENERIC, which is basically just amphetamine salts in an extended release capsule. That's crazy, considering they used to hand out amphetamines like candy. Now it's prohibitively expensive and a schedule 2 drug. I have to pick up a written prescription from my doctor every 30 days to get a "refill", which means I can't use the mail order program my prescription plan offers that lets you get 3 refills at a time and only pay for 1. Ugh! Anyway, yeah. Drugs should not be so expensive. Makes me wish I lived in Canada ( ... )

quiet000001 April 19 2010, 22:14:37 UTC

It's not so much the cost of the drug as the cost of the blood tests. If I start on it again they're going to be monthly for a while, and that runs ~$200 a set around here. (Or did last time I paid for it, anyway.) If they don't un-fuck my health insurance sometime soon my mom is going to make me sign up for another plan so I at least have emergency coverage and that'll be expensive, too. Grr ( ... )

quiet000001 April 19 2010, 22:17:23 UTC

Oh, I was going to suggest, for eating more the day after - maybe try having more easy to nibble on type foods hanging around? As boring as saltine crackers are, they are easy to kind of absently nibble on while doing something else, and there are SOME calories there, so. Stuff like that always worked better for me. (Because of course, you're also feeling more run down, so you don't want to go to the effort of finding something to eat when you're not that hungry anyway... So low effort to prepare and eat foods are the way to go. :) )

merryish April 19 2010, 22:53:57 UTC

I'm reading all this in fascination (and relief) because I'm probably going to have to start mtx next month and I've been sort of quietly freaking out about it. I'm bookmarking this entry to refer back to once I start - thanks for all the info! It makes me far more comfortable to hear from someone actually on it, instead of just a couple of doctors ( ... )

quiet000001 April 20 2010, 00:46:02 UTC

You'll probably be on more than one pill - in my experience they prefer to start with smallish doses and work you up by increasing the number of pills (I ended up on six 2.5mg as my weekly dose, I think.) So don't be surprised if you end up taking a small pile of the darn things while they're working out what dose. (For some reason, they never switched me to a larger pill after deciding on a dose to stay with, but that might vary from doctor to doctor, depending on what dose you're actually on and so on ( ... )

phaballa April 20 2010, 15:27:08 UTC

Does it really make contraception less effective? No one told me anything about that! Although isn't mtx an abortifacient? I'd assume that if they don't want you to get pregnant on mtx, and they say, "You'll have to keep taking your ortho-tricylcin while you're on the mtx," then I don't really need to worry about it. I hope. Do not want flipper baby!

quiet000001 April 20 2010, 21:58:32 UTC

It does, and mtx is, but it can also cause birth defects (because it attacks quick-reproducing cells which is, well, basically what a fetus is) so I probably personally wouldn't rely on birth control pills as my ONLY method of contraception while on MTX, just in case.

phaballa April 20 2010, 15:17:29 UTC

Mmm saltines. I couldn't finish my toast, but saltines might work! And thanks for all the advice. It really helps to talk to someone who's been through this sort of thing before.

quiet000001 April 20 2010, 22:13:42 UTC

I really hope it works as well for you as it does for me. It's not perfect - I still get pain from overuse of arthritic joints while I'm on it (like if I was a moron and went to a concert on a concrete floor in shoes with no padding and bounced around all night, my ankles and knee will LET ME KNOW in no uncertain terms how they feel about THAT kind of behavior) but it improves the daily pain and stiffness immensely ( ... )

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