?Medications-prednisone, methotrexate

[Guest guest]

My 15 year old daughter was diagnosed last month with RA and lupus. I

got it when I was 18, so I know some things. She's miserable, but

getting better now that she's on prednisone.

My concern, she's on celebrex and prednisone. I don't think the

celebrex is working (been almost 3 weeks)so doc added plaquinel,

mehtotrexate, & folic acid, besides the first 2. We see doc in 4

weeks.

Anyone been on all these? side effects? I've been on them separate,

except Celebrex. Does it usually take 4 weeks of celebrex to kick in?

Thanks in advance!

Deb

[Guest guest]

Hi Deb,

First of all your daughter has Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and Juvenile SLE.

Your rheumy is being aggressive and even though you may think the Celebrex

isn't working or doing much it realy is.While it will not slow down the diseases

it will help with inflimation.

Both JRA and JSLE are treated with nonsteroidal anti inflamitories and DMARDS

such as Methotrexate and Plaquenel and depending on the type of JRA or

severity and with Lupas Steroids are commonly used.

If it eases your mind any my 4 yr old was on 300mg Ibuprofin 3xdaily,25mg

Methotrexate 1x week sub-que,1mg Folic acid 1xdaily,200mg Plaquenil 1x daily and

12.5mg Enbrel 2x week subque and the not so lovely pred for 20 months with an

average dose of around 15mg.So it boils down to 3 DMARDS,Steroids,a non

inflamitory and a supplement.

There is no telling what drug coctail your daughter may eventualy be on.Some

drugs not used for Lupas are used for moderate to severe JRA and some drugs

for severe Lupas are not commonly used for JRA,for example Cyclosporine,Cytoxin

and Cellcept are more common in Lupas and only severe JRA,while

Enbrel,Remicade,Humara and Kineret are for moderate to severe JRA but not Lupas.

I hope I didn't confuse you.

Sorry that your daughter has not 1 but 2 nasty auto immune diseases.We aren't

real experianced with Lupas but we will help anyway we can with the JRA.I am

sure there are also some great support groups for the Lupas.

You said that you have RA but is your daughter seeing a pediatric

rheumatoligist,if not,she should be.JRA and JSLE are not exact copycats of the

adult

forms and it may be possible that your daughter has systemic onset JRA and not

Lupas at all.Mayby I shouldn't have said that,but it's like having the worst of

both.You have arthritis,rash,fever and organ inflimation.Just a thought because

it is pretty rare to have both.

Becki and 6 systemic JRA

[Guest guest]

Hi Deb:

My daughter was on Prednisone, MTX, Placquenil and Folic Acid. I can tell

you what she experienced with them:

Prednisone: When she was at a higher dose, she started to eat all the time.

We couldn't give this child enough food! We tried to make sure that what she

was eating was, at least, healthy foods. Fortunately for her, she did not

gain much weight. When she was tapering down and got to 2mg she started

experience crying spells and was depressed. We stopped at 2mg and her

depression and

crying stopped.

MTX: Caitlin started losing her hair while on this and started to complain

of headaches. We were not sure if the headaches were from the Placquenil or

the MTX, but because of the hair loss and the fact that she was doing well

otherwise, we took her off the MTX.

Placquenil: Possible headaches. Went off it (and other meds) and headaches

went away. When she is on the Placquenil make sure she sees the eye doctor to

check her vision and to ensure that the Placquenil is not causing any

problems with her eyes.

Folic Acid: When she started losing her hair, she went off the MTX and went

on FA to try to prevent any more hair loss.

I hope your daughter finds some relief with the new meds.

Take care.

Patty

[Guest guest]

HI, Deb. For my son, the Celebrex took a bit. They started out with

400mgs a day and within about 2 months he was up to 800 mgs a day,

considered to be the max. That is when the dr added sulfasalazine. The

hope was to lower the Celebrex, which did not happen. The sulfa was to

3000mgs a day (also max) and then the dr added methotrexate/folic acid.

The use of that has enabled my son to get off the Celebrex completely.

He only takes it as needed. So I guess it can take a while for the

Celebrex to help, and the dose may need to be adjusted. Once it was

upped it did help his pain and inflammation, but the disease was still

active and more things began to be affected (it was just his ankles

originally). I don't know much about the other drugs your dd is on,

sorry. Welcome to the list, Michele (17, pauci & spondy)

?Medications-prednisone, methotrexate

My 15 year old daughter was diagnosed last month with RA and lupus. I

got it when I was 18, so I know some things. She's miserable, but

getting better now that she's on prednisone.

My concern, she's on celebrex and prednisone. I don't think the

celebrex is working (been almost 3 weeks)so doc added plaquinel,

mehtotrexate, & folic acid, besides the first 2. We see doc in 4

weeks.

Anyone been on all these? side effects? I've been on them separate,

except Celebrex. Does it usually take 4 weeks of celebrex to kick in?

Thanks in advance! Deb

[Guest guest]

Deb,

There are MANY of our children that are on both pred. and mtx. and

have lots of experience with both. You are experienced, so you know

the good and bad of pred. I call it the " making a deal with the

devil drug " ( no religious intention intended). I don't know about

the combination of JRA and lupus, but I hope that someone here does.

In brief, my son was on Naprosyn (same type of drug as Celebrex

except the GI issues) for 3 1/2 years, then hell broke loose with

the joints and we immediately went on to mtx and pred. It wasn't a

matter of when the celebrex/naprosyn kicked in, but when the mtx.

kicked in.

So very sorry for your heartbreak of both diseases. I haven't heard

of them presenting together before, but I'm no doctor. Keep asking

away and somebody here will help you more. Best to your teen girl.

Stacia and Hunter 8 systemic, iritis