Newly Diagnosed MCTD inflammatory arthritis

JLight

Hi! I live in the USA. My primary problem is "inflammatory arthritis". I am 52, in menopause. Some days I'm exhaused & in a lot of pain. Prednisone has given me some energy back, but my rheumatologist is having me wean off while I go onto methotrexate. He does jot want me taking any nsaids but hasn't explained why. Not a fan of my rheumatologist and am in the process of getting an appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital.

YvonneH

Hi @JLight good afternoon, I'm glad you found us, we have a few members from the USA. You might find some of the names for medications can be different but for the 2 you have mentioned that is not an issue.

It's always hard when you have symptoms from more than one condition, especially when they overlap as in your case. The prednisolone is a steroid and they are great at reducing inflammation which is why they are used initially. Sadly they also reduce the thickness of other membranes in your body with bad effects, which is why they can only be taken in short bursts. You also have to come off them slowly as your doctor has suggested.

You should be n a partnership with your medical team and certainly should feel able to ask questions. Here is our information on NSAIDs

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/drugs/painkillers-and-nsaids/

Scroll down to the bit on NSAIDs and you will see there are many reasons not to be prescribed with these meds and perhaps you fall into one of these groups. Taking MTX (Methotrexate) is seen as a good long term solution for inflammatory arthritis, sometimes with other drugs added in. It can take up to 12 weeks to get the full effect though.

Do look around the community and do post wherever you feel comfortable, the more you post the more you get out of a forum type of community.

Looking forward to your next post

Yvonne