Methotrexate and Pred

[stephwest]

As I have tapered the Pred down to 10mg a day I feel my reaction to the 20mg of Methotrexate in one go on Tuesday seems more severe eg; very tired, shaky, dizzy minded, nervous and generally crappy.

[Pete]

Thanks for something to look forward to. ;-/. I'm at 20 mg mtx per week and down to 45 mg pred/day. The issues I have are with pred (sleeplessness, cramping in hands). Never had any issues with mtx.

[Dirty Don]

Try splitting your mtx dosage in 2: take half in the AM, 2nd half in PM. Sometimes I even do it half on Saturday, half on Sunday. Doc said it really doesn't matter as long as you get your dosage in you within 24 hours. I had quite a bit of 'side effects' from the entire dosage at once, so Mayo said split it, it worked, no more of that stuff!

[annekat]

Try splitting your mtx dosage in 2: take half in the AM, 2nd half in PM. Sometimes I even do it half on Saturday, half on Sunday. Doc said it really doesn't matter as long as you get your dosage in you within 24 hours. I had quite a bit of 'side effects' from the entire dosage at once, so Mayo said split it, it worked, no more of that stuff!

Don's advice is good. I take 15mg. MTX per week and take 4 pills before bed and the other two the next morning. So I sleep through the worst of it. At 20mg. per week, I would definitely split the dose. As for feeling it more with a lower pred dose, I can't comment because I wasn't on it while on higher pred doses.

[vdub]

20mg of mtx is pretty light and shouldn't be an issue. Enjoy the pred while you can and get all those things done that you've been putting off. You will gain weight -- don't fight it.

[Alysia]

I am taking my mtx differnetly then others here, but my wg-doc promised me that it is ok: I am on 15mg per week and I am taking it 2.5mgX6 days. this way I hardly feel it.

[annekat]

I am taking my mtx differnetly then others here, but my wg-doc promised me that it is ok: I am on 15mg per week and I am taking it 2.5mgX6 days. this way I hardly feel it.

You may be the only one on here doing it this way, but it must be OK, since you are OK and doing fairly well. Docs have their accepted protocols for med dosages, but who is to say something else might not work? I do wonder, though whether the MTX is as therapeutic that way, and since you are also on RTX, it might be kind of hard to tell which one is doing what. I know that your doc knows way more than I do, and that you trust him.

[Wegetarian]

Enjoy the pred while you can and get all those things done that you've been putting off. You will gain weight -- don't fight it.

Gaining weight on 10mg pred a day? My enormous appetite stopped when I got down to 40mg and I started losing weight when I was on 25mg. I'm a big guy though, but does doses as low as 10mg still affect us in that way?

[vdub]

You shouldn't have the ravenous appetite that you do with higher doses, but weight gain would not be unusual. On the "*sone" list, pred is moderately powerful.... maybe 5 or 6 times more powerful than hydrocortisone. But even hydrocortisone can cause significant weight gain.

I just upped my hydrocortisone from 20mg/day to 30mg/day and it equated to about 10 lbs almost overnight....

[pberggren1]

Yikes......10 lbs overnight?