Today I had a follow up appointment with my Rheumatology Consultants as it's now time to start on Methotrexate which is a type of medicine called an immunosuppressant. It slows down your body's immune system and helps reduce swelling (inflammation). It's used to treat inflammatory conditions including rheumatoid arthritis. It's also use to slow down cancer.
As my immune system will be lowered, they took blood to test to see if I have any underlying viruses in my system already, before they put me on the drug, once started I will need to go to St Georges for blood tests every week or fortnightly to check on my liver and kidneys, these tests are to check if the Methotrexate is working and if it's causing any side effects.
I will be taking Methotrexate on a Monday and on the Wednesday I will be taking Folic Acid (I did say to the consultant I was not pregnant) Folic acid supplementation during methotrexate therapy can reduce the risks of adverse effects including nausea vomiting, abdominal pain, mouth ulcers, raised liver enzymes and bone marrow toxicity, hair loss and baldness, my daughter the consultants and I had a laugh about the last one as I have a receding hair line and had just had a number 1 shave of my hair this morning.
Methotrexate (MTX) combined with low-dose prednisolone (PDN) is the cornerstone of early rheumatoid arthritis treatment reducing inflammation and slowing down bone damage.
Once my consultant has my blood results back they will send a prescription and a list of dates they would like me to come in for blood tests, it's a pain in the arse that I have to travel to St Georges and can not have the blood test done locally.
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