Bewildered by so many meds

jojoflowergirl

Hello

I’m new here! I have been on sulfsalazine for a year & my consultant now wants to put me on methotrexate. I’m very worried as I have a lot of health issues being treated under the hospital & on lots of medications. My main concern is I already am on a chemo drug Hydroxycarbamide for blood cancer. I also have asthma. What really worries me though is my mum was on methotrexate for 20yrs for RA too was a non smoker & I lost her 8yrs ago to an aggressive lung cancer. I’m really scared that this was caused by the methotrexate & it really worries me about taking it, especially with my other issues. Please can anyone advise me as my consultant just seems to poopoo my concerns. I am going to speak to my haematologist on Monday for their thoughts.

Thank you for reading 😊

helpline_team

Hello @jojoflowergirl and welcome to the Community. We are a friendly and supportive group and I hope that will be your experience too.

Thank you for posting about starting Methotrexate. Your worries and concerns are very understandable, especially as you are having treatment for other health issues, including asthma and blood cancer, and you also lost your mother to cancer which you think may have been caused by taking Methotrexate for 20 years.

It may help to talk things through further with your rheumatology specialist nurse. The rheumatology nurse helpline can usually be contacted between clinic appointments by leaving a message and asking for a call back. You could ask your GP to arrange a second opinion from a different rheumatologist if you are still worried. We are not medically trained.

If you do start Methotrexate, you will be monitored carefully with fortnightly blood tests and it can be stopped or the dosage altered if you develop side effects. There are other medications in the DMARD family which can be tried instead. It is good that you have been able to tolerate Sulfasalazine for 1 year. It is common to add a second DMARD. Methotrexate can be very effective for some people and not everyone develops side effects.

If you would like to have more replies to your post, you are welcome to repost on our Living with Arthritis forum which is a supportive space where you can ask questions and share experiences with others. You are also welcome to call our Free Helpline if you would like to talk things through informally and in confidence on 0800 5200 520 weekdays 9am - 6pm .

I hope you find the information given below of some help.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/drugs/methotrexate/

https://nras.org.uk/resource/methotrexate/

Please keep posting and let us know how you are getting on and I'm sure others will connect with you as well.

Best wishes,

Fiona, Helpline Advisor

SLH22

Hello, I started Methotrexate 3 weeks ago and understand your concerns after a lot of research. If you want to ask anything or I can help in any way, please let me know. Steph

iwannerbeme

I am really sorry you lost your Mum like that. I am also sorry your consulant is so dismissive of your fears. Some facts and research might have been more helpful than simply "poo pooing" I started methotrexate around a month ago. I was terrified of taking it and even put off collecting it for as long as I could. So far no side effects at all. Infact its my new best friend as Im pain free no swelling or tenderness and I can wear all my shoes again! TBF ive changed my diet to an anti-inflamatory one and lost a fair bit of weight. Not all in one go but over the last couple of years and I wonder if methotrexate is the icing on the cake as its not supposed to act that fast. I did a fair bit of research and from what I can gather RA can cause cancer its self because of the chronic inflamation. Drugs such as methotrexate keep the inflamation in check. I did read methotrexate may be linked to an increased risk of skin cancer though. I do feel a little between a rock and hard place. I dont like taking any drugs and methotrexate is a "heavy" drug on the other hand the chronic inflamation that causes RA can also cause heart diesease, cancer and diabetis ect. I also read a stud that found

"MTX use was associated with a 70% reduction in mortality in RA"

Study link below.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/art.37723

it will be interesting in what others have found and know. Im pretty new to this, I was diagnosed in September.