question for all

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I have been on Methotrexate for 2 1/2 months now. I have to say I do feel a

bit better and even have some days that my pain in manageable. My doctor

started me on 6 pills of 2.5 mg a week then upped the dose to 7 pills per week.

I

was just called from the doctors office to say that my blood work just came

back and that my liver enzymes were fine but my WBC count is low(3.7) they tell

me not to worry but what exactly does that mean? Then nurse then said the doc

would wait another month for more blood tests then decide if he would either

lower my dose or totally take me off for 2 weeks then put me back on. I am

scared about the second scenario because that would mean I would just be on my

Plaquenil and to be honest, I dont know if that helps me at all. Can anyone

help me out with any ifo here? also, I was thinking of trying some natural

remedies to up my WBC. Anyone know anything about that?

thanks in advance and hope you are all having a pain free day.

sandie

[Guest guest]

Sandie,

I had the same problem with methotrexate. As my rheumy said, my body

did not like it.

When I first started taking it, my WBC count was 9.7. It kept getting

lower and lower, little by little. He switched me to Arava, which only

continued the decline. When I got to 2.2, he switched me to Enbrel.

This was over a period of a year and a half. Enbrel works much better

for me, so this was not such a bad thing, LOL. It took over two years,

though, for my WBC count to come back up to normal. This was just last

month.

Do you know what your count was before you started the mtx? Were you on

another med that was also lowering your count? RA meds do suppress the

immune system, in different ways. Our bodies just react in different

ways to them.

I don't know of any natural remedies that can raise the WBC count. I

was lucky enough that I didn't get sick a lot even though my count was

low.

There is also another disease, Felty's syndrome, that sometimes

accompanies RA and causes a low WBC count. I was beginning to think

that I had it, but I guess I don't.

Hope this helps, Sue

On Thursday, September 15, 2005, at 04:02 PM, slmcc93@... wrote:

> Hi,

> I have been on Methotrexate for 2 1/2 months now. I have to say I do

> feel a

> bit better and even have some days that my pain in manageable. My

> doctor

> started me on 6 pills of 2.5 mg a week then upped the dose to 7 pills

> per week. I

> was just called from the doctors office to say that my blood work just

> came

> back and that my liver enzymes were fine but my WBC count is low(3.7)

> they tell

> me not to worry but what exactly does that mean? Then nurse then said

> the doc

> would wait another month for more blood tests then decide if he would

> either

> lower my dose or totally take me off for 2 weeks then put me back on.

> I am

> scared about the second scenario because that would mean I would just

> be on my

> Plaquenil and to be honest, I dont know if that helps me at all. Can

> anyone

> help me out with any ifo here? also, I was thinking of trying some

> natural

> remedies to up my WBC. Anyone know anything about that?

>

> thanks in advance and hope you are all having a pain free day.

> sandie