Help with nausea

Bones, joints and muscles
1

Hope everyone had a good Christmas.  Thanks to everyone who responded to my first post.  I eventually saw the doctor and was put on Methotrexate three 2.5mg for two weeks, four for two weeks and five going forwards.  Since my second week (last Wednesday) I have been nauseous and getting worse.  Can anyone help as surgery is closed and hospital not available.

2

Hi Yvonne

the arthritis foundation says you can split the dose- half in morning and half in evening ( taken with food)

but most important of course is taking folic acid as this counteracts the side effects of nausea etc.

What has your rheumy prescribed? If you are taking 7 and half mg methotrexate then you should have 7 and half mg folic acid next day ( or some rheumies spread that dose over a few days) that increases to 10mg when mxt moves to 10 mg

Hope this helps till you can contact someone

 

3

Have you been prescribed folic acid to take the bay before and the day after the methotrexate? If not I believe you can buy it over the counter. I was given it to take the day before and day after, but ended up told to take it every day except on the methotrexate day.

4

Hi Yvonne,sorry you are getting the side effects.You can be prescribed folic acid to ease this although it cannot be taken the same day as the methotrexate.If side effects too bad you can be switched to injections which they teach you to do yourself .Good luck

5

There's also a med called leucovorin which is a folic acid + calcium combination; it worked much better for me than the folic acid. It's prescription & taken the same way.

I continued to get severe nausea the day I took the MTX and the day after. I asked for zofran just for those 2 days. You could also try ginger--ginger drops, crystallized ginger, ginger candy.

6

Thanks Rowbirdie

I should have said I am on 5mg folic acid once a week.   Does anyone know if I can take it more than once a week without seeing the hueumy.

7

Hi mickyphillips

Did you get the ok from the rheumy to take every day.

8

Thanks gillian 25383

9

Thanks Karen will check the med you suggested

10

Hi

As I understand it, you can have exactly same mg folic acid as mtx- so it should be fine to take 7half mg( an inconvenient 1 and half tablets I suspect!) are you taking it the day following? That s what I have to do.

But don't take more than that per week and not on same day as mtx as someone has said.

i think a pharmacist could advise you if you wanted to be sure about increasing the folic acid to 7 and a half.

if it s any consolation the nausea usually decreases with time and tweaks of management. 

All the best

 

11

Hi Yvonne, yes I was still nauseous taking them the day before and the day after, the rheumatologist the prescribed them every day except the methotrexate day. I still feel a little bit nauseous the day after taking methotrexate but nowhere near as bad.

12

Can someone tell me why you are not supposed to take folic acid the same day as methotrexate? My doctor prescribed one pill a day everyday even on my MTX day.

13

Rheumy did not give an explanation just said not to take both on the same day

14

Hi River

the folic acid reduces the effect of the methotrexate- but I guess your rheumy has asked you todo that for a reason and your folic acid dose is being spread through the whole week so only a small part of the dose is on your mxt day.

15

Hi Yvonne when I was on mtx I used to take it towards the evening after I'd eaten a couple of meals and snacks and after taking the days worth of anti sickness tablets (I was taking three a day). Then have an early night and sleep through the nausea. My aim was to get to 20mg, however I didn't get there because when I got to a certain mg ( can't quite remember what point) I couldn't increase anymore without vomiting. I switched to self injecting, doing that bypassed the stomach causing less side effects. Hope this helps.

16

Hi Gemma i am only on 7.5mg so i dread to think what i will be like when i increase to 10mg on Wednesday.  however, i will ask about anti sickness tablets.

Thanks for your support

17

Hi Yvonne,you can take 5mg folic acid 6days a week but unfortunately by 25mg methotrexate I had to do injectionsThey are no trouble and four weeks on touch wood no side effects as bypasses digestive tract plus as added benefit the liver.

18

Hi river, it's apparently because if taken on the same day the methotrexate isn't as effective.