Sherri and Mike

[Guest guest]

A big, fat congrats from me too, Sherri!

Mike, you mentioned you'd probably be on methotrexate for life. If in

remission, wouldn't the goal be getting off all meds? Is it simply because

your doctor is afraid you'd relapse? Once I " remissed, " I didn't need to take

anything. Of course, I realize that some do, and some don't. Take care,

[Guest guest]

Hi .

Yes, the goal is to get off all the medication. As of today, I am

down to 1 mg/day of the prednisone. And of course I hope to be off

all of them in time.

But from reading (both the various boards and some medical research),

it seems that for most people, there will be some medications

required to prevent flareups. Maybe I'll be one of the very lucky

ones and get off entirely. Maybe I'll just require a bit of medicine

on an intermittent basis. We'll know more as I get off the

prednisone, and start to try tapering the methotrexate.

At the low doses I'm now at, and with my being able to work and live

a pretty typical life, I'm already one of the lucky ones. So if I get

off the meds altogether, great. If I have to have a maintenance dose,

no big deal -- the drugs cause few side effects for big lugs like me.

Have you got much snow near Woodstock? Up here we are above freezing,

and look to stay that way into the weekend. And I am on vacation

until the New Year. No snow to shovel!

Keep warm.

Mike B

> A big, fat congrats from me too, Sherri!

> Mike, you mentioned you'd probably be on methotrexate for life. If

in

> remission, wouldn't the goal be getting off all meds? Is it simply

because

> your doctor is afraid you'd relapse? Once I " remissed, " I didn't

need to take

> anything. Of course, I realize that some do, and some don't. Take

care,