Subject: Re: Methotrexate....

From: [email-masked] (Jeffrey Shore)
Date: Sun, 01 Sep 96 11:18:20 GMT

(Michel GUEDJ) wrote:
>Gerry McCready <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>> Hi: I would like to communicate with anyone taking 
methotrexate, to discuss
>> their dosage and regimen and any results. Thanks.
>
>I'm taking Metho since May 96.
>Dosage is 7.5mg a week, 3x2.5mg tablet at 12 hours interval.
>Associated with 2 tablets of Folic acid a day.
>No regimen, no results of course ;-) I think that the goal is 
only
>trying to reduce MS course?
>

Guess no one told you: It takes 3+ months to begin seeing
results, if there are results to see. Yes, the goal is to
slow the rate of progression. Dosage varies by how your
body tolerates it and how aggressive your doc is (before
I fired her, one neuro was so conservative that divine
intervention was more likely than her prescribing water).

I've been on methx since about Feb 94 when I was dropping
like a rock. After 6+ months I had stabilized and actually
made up some lost ground. The last 4-6 weeks I've been having
increasing attacks (frequency/intensity/scope) so the methx
efficacy for me may have run its course ... or I may just be
going through a bad but limited period. If it stops, it was
limited; if it doesn't, then it isn't. [What?!?].

I am pushing my docs very hard to switch me to Avonex. One
wants to stay with the methx, the other wants to try Avonex
for a year. Oh, I'm currently on 4x2.5mg once a week at a gulp
and 1 folic acid of [x?]mg daily.

Tacked-on message for Chris Boyes: There you are, lad, the
update I promised to post. Glad I procrastinated, as usual,
as the renewed attacks started after we last spoke. I still
owe you 7 pints, 3 phone calls, and 1 apology. All in time.

Jeff Shore
[email-masked]

P.S. For alternative medicine buffs, an alchemist working out
of a back-alley shop in Hoboken has determined that a free-fall
from the Sears Tower in Chicago may have temporary salutary
effects. However, the side-effects may be somewhat problematical
and coherent feedback reports have been difficult to obtain. He
is refining his treatment technique and results will be printed
in next month's JAMA or Rolling Stone depending on negotiations.