Awful mouth ulcers help!

Kittkat

Hello
I am 5 weeks into 7.5 mg mtx. I take it on a sunday. Wednesday this week I noticed I felt sick and had a sore mouth. Yesturday I noticed around6-7 pretty nasty mouth ulcers. They are so sore and I don't know what to do. I take 5mg of folic acid. I am worried they will get worse. Has anyone had this?
Thanks

kentishlady

Sorry to hear you are having problems. Am afraid I can't help as I have OA. However, if it were me, I think I'd be phoning my gp or anyone else who you see, to tell them and ask for advice.

Hope you can sort it out soon.

Take care. Beryl

destiny0321

get in touch with gp as soon as possible

Numptydumpty

Hi Kittkat,
I think you need to speak to your Dr or Rheumy nurse. I had problems with mouth ulcers when I was on tablet meth, I was told to take folic acid every day except for meth day, this helped, but didn't entirely cure the problem. Now I'm on injected Meth, things are a lot better.
Of course you shouldn't increase your folic acid unless told to do so by a Dr or Rheumy, but my guess is, that will be the first thing they try.
Give them a call, I know how miserable mouth ulcers are, and hope you soon get it sorted.
Take care, Numpty

dreamdaisy

I second Numpty's advice, mouth ulcers possibly caused by meth are a common problem on here and GPs are not really that clued up. Please ring your rheumatology helpline or the department direct. DD

Numptydumpty

Hi, me again.
I forgot to say, they also lowered my meth dose, so they do take mouth ulcers seriously. Call your doctor or Rheumy, don't suffer unnecessarily.
Numpty

suzygirl

When my mouth ulcers were really bad my gp prescribed Difflucam mouth wash (brilliant stuff) and some steroid pastilles to suck and soothe the inflammation. It really helped.

However you still need to speak to rheumy nurse as yours may be down to the meth and not disease as in my case.

stickywicket

I'm with DD and Numpty, Kittkat. You need rheumatology advice and, as it's Friday, I'd lose no time ringing them. Rinsing your mouth out with salt water might help a little. Please let us know how you get on.

trepolpen

hi, agree with the others & talk to your Rheummy doc/nurse , its a side effect from Mtx & increasing folic acid will help & I take folic acid six days a week but with 25mg Mtx but you need your consultant to approve it as they will know best

Kittkat

Thanks all for the replies
I phone the 'helpline' which I had to look up myself and it says they only take calls Tuesday or Wednesdays My gp is totally useless aswell! Damn! . I've emailed about it so hopefully they get back to me in the mean time will use salt water and hopefully that helps. Thanks again.

chookgate

Don't use salt water, salt often makes ulcers worse! There are lots of things you can buy over the counter at the pharmacist to soothe them until you get to the doctor - at the risk of being deemed advertising, I find liquid Anbesol to be brilliant, you can apply it with a finger tip as often as necessary, and it anaethetises the ulcer (as well as containing an antiseptic). I'm not on the same drugs as you though, so probably best to just check with the pharmacist it is okay to use - though it's only being dabbed on, not ingested.

stickywicket

How are you today, Kittkat? At least no worse, I hope.

Kittkat

Hello Sticky ( and everyone) mouth ulcers are no worse thankfully. I had a full blood count and that was normal thankfully. So will speak to someone in rheumatology and see what they say reference taking next dose/folic acid etc. Thanks everyone for the replies

stickywicket

Good. I hope it goes well. It'll be good news if more folic acid will solve the problem.