's appt.

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the input Kellie, sounds like your little one is a strong one!!!!

Dee Dee

[Guest guest]

Hi Kellie,

Thanks for sending in an update. I hope that the increased dose of MTX, if that's what they decide on, helps to better control 's arthritis in her wrists and hips. Josh has been getting 15mgs a week. He weighs about 61 pounds/stands about 4 ft tall. I think they calculate dosages by body mass/surface area. Maybe that'll give you an idea? Others here have been much more helpful, with translating the dosage amounts. That's always been tricky for me. Never learned the metric system as well as I should have : (

Take Care,

Georgina

well it is me again.. we just got back from our long 2 hour journey to pitts. childrens hosp. to see jessica's rhummy.. well she said she is looking a little better and thinks she wants to up her mtx injection to 0.4 but thats not till she checks her blood levels.. and we have to go back down there in january for another recheck.. and at that time she also has a ot consult. she is worried about her wrists and hips they seem tight so... is this a high dose of mtx they want to increase it to or is it normal? i just wish this was just a nightmare and it was over.. also she got her 1st flu shot today she said she had to get it and has to get another one in 1 month due to her age. and said that sence i work in a nursing home i should get one too.. ok i guess thats enought rambling for now. thanks for listening.. kellie & jessica 7yr poly

[Guest guest]

You have to remember with MTX you are working with microliters my 3yr old

gets .6 which is 15mg his prednisilone is 4milliliters or 4cc which equals

12mg.I got really confused because sometimes my rheumy would use mg mils

and ccs so it took me a while to get the hang of it.My son weighs 46 lbs

and can go as high as 20 mg MTX ,I have a friend whos daughter is 2 and

she gets 17.5mg.Iknow they go higher with children than they usually do

with adults,why I dont know.My son started out on .3MTX=7.5mg to

..4=10mg up to .6=15mg every microliter =2.5mg .I hope I havent confused

you i have almost confused myself.Good luck Becki

and 3 systemic

Sevco, wrote:

Kellie,Nikki

goes to Children's in Pittsburgh and is on .5ml of methotrexate per week.

Mls and ccs are the same thing. .2cc = 5mg, .3cc = 7.5mg, .4cc =

10mg etc. The maximum dose is 1 mg per kg of body weight. Nikki

weighs 13.2 kg (around 29.5 pounds) so 12.5mg or .5 cc is the max methotrexate

dose she can be on. She is currently on the max. They increased

it slowly from .2cc to .5cc. The good news is that her sed rate dropped

from 53 to 19. 19 is the lowest it has been in the 2 years she has

had JRA. I hope gets the same good results.Chris

-----Original

Message-----

From: angelslilsis@...

[mailto:angelslilsis@...]

Sent: Tuesday, November

20, 2001 6:11 PM

Subject: 's

appt.

well it is

me again.. we just got back from our long 2 hour journey to pitts. childrens

hosp. to see jessica's rhummy.. well she said she is looking a little better

and thinks she wants to up her mtx injection to 0.4 but thats not till

she checks her blood levels.. and we have to go back down there in january

for another recheck.. and at that time she also has a ot consult. she is

worried about her wrists and hips they seem tight so... is this a high

dose of mtx they want to increase it to or is it normal? i just wish

this was just a nightmare and it was over.. also she got her 1st flu shot

today she said she had to get it and has to get another one in 1 month

due to her age. and said that sence i work in a nursing home i should get

one too.. ok i guess thats enought rambling for now. thanks for listening..

kellie & jessica 7yr poly

For links to websites about arthritis

and JRA, visit:

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Village/8414/Links.html

[Guest guest]

HI Dee Dee,My son is 3 and has systemic I was in the same place you are

3-4 weeks ago.Thanks to all the wonderful responses from this group I told

my Rheumy I wanted to switch over to injections.oral Mtx is not always

fully absorbed by the body,the patiant insert says pediatric leukemia patiants

taking oral MTX had a 23%-95% absorbtion rate.I dont know if it is because

they had cancer or what but I didnt want to take any chances.My personal

experince with it is that 3 days after he had his first shot EVERYTHING

went away for 11 days until we droped him to 6mg pred.he had his first

real flair with fever,he wanted to go back for another shot.We were looking

at maxing him out orally(20mg) but I have learned that alot of children

can get the same or better benefit by taking injections at lower doses

than orally.I hope Georgina responds because she told me that she honestly

believes that if Josh started injections alot sooner he would have gotten

on low doses pred sooner.It is a hard desision to make,for us it was a

good one.I dont have to look back and say what if,I know he is getting

all of the MTX now.He doesnt mind the shot ,he is so happy that its not

a blood draw.I use a small bag of frozen baby peas to numb his leg and

so far no tears.We take to his pediatrician and have the nurse give

it .My friend used to do the same thing until her daughters shot day fell

on Christmas and she had no choice but do it herself.Good luck and let

us know what you decide to do.Happy turkey day

Becki and 3 systemic

deedit1112@... wrote:

Hi, this

is Dee Dee (/9 yr with poly -- the 5 foot 9 year old ~

didn't realize that her height was so unusual for kids with JRA).

Anyways, I don't have any answers to the questions on the dosage of MTX

that Kellie asked, but am curious when kids get MTX in injection form versus

pill form. still gets pill form (20mg 1x/week), but at her

last appointment the doctor stated that she anticipates increasing the

MTX one more time before she gets the meds via injections. Does the

doctor give injections or the parent? And how often ~ weekly?

is so deathly afraid

of needles that I don't know how we are going to handle that when it comes

up and with the ever increasing pain, I am guessing that will be soon.

When she has blood draws, we put the cream on her arm so she doesn't feel

the needle stick (she still cannot even watch it even though she cannot

feel it).

Also in regard to Kellie's

initial e-mail, she mentioned the OT consult. Is OT or PT common

for children with JRA? 's left wrist is always tender to the

touch and she can hardly flex it. I did have a PT friend look at

her for 10 seconds and she felt that OT would be needed as she said she

could tell the difference in 's muscle strength in the upper left

arm - weaker than the right.

Well, that's all for now.

Thanks for all your input.

Dee Dee and

For links to websites about arthritis

and JRA, visit:

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Village/8414/Links.html