Monday, September 13, 2010

If it's not one thing, it's five others...

Haha! Just kidding, sorta.  It's not five things, but one new one. I guess it's the extra folic acid I'm taking the day before, the day of, and the day after my MTX....but oh my WORD.  I'm so nauseous.  It's awful!  I have what I would consider a verrrrryyyyy strong stomach.  I've only thrown up a few times in my life.  I feel queasy and icky when I get a stomach bug that causes everyone else to puke like crazy.  I'm lucky in that sense.
HOWEVER...for about 3 hours yesterday, and for a couple so far today, I have been experiencing sudden bouts of nausea that are extremely close to causing me to throw up.  My stomach feels horrible the rest of the time...gassy, queasy, the works. 
Do any of you have problems with folic acid?

I will blog more later...when the room isn't spinning.  After all, it is National Invisible Chronic Illness Week and I want to blog for the cause.  What a great idea to spread awareness.  God knows I was very much unaware of these invisible illnesses just a little over a year ago. 

5 comments:

  1. I take a small dose of folic acid every day, not just around the time of the mexo. Something to definitely ask the doc about, maybe there's something natural you can take. I've never had any problems with it.

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  2. Hello Beth, nausea is a common side effect of MTX, not heard of anyone nauseous from Folic Acid. The only nausea I've experienced was when I was taking 7 MTX to start off with. Cut that back and have had no problems since. The Folic Acid will help with the MTX side effects without interfering with the effectiveness of the MTX. Also, if it does turn out to be the MTX, another option might be MTX injections. I have talked with several RAer's who inject MTX due to it improving the medicines effects while eliminating the nausea. I take 5 MTX weekly and 2 FA daily.
    Hope you can get it sorted out quickly.

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  3. Hi Beth,

    I was told the folic acid was to calm the side effects of the MTX. When I got to the maximum dose of MTX, I switched over to the injectable. I didn't get any side effects, except some hair loss...

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  4. I take 5mg of folic acid a day - 3 1mg tabs in the AM and 2 in the PM. I have had no nausea from the FA, but I do experience nausea from the MTX from time to time. It's well-controlled with Phenergan. I take 8 MTX tabs one day a week, 4 in the AM and 4 in the PM. I'm getting ready to switch over to the injectable MTX - we are looking for better control as well as bypassing the GI system altogether to reduce even the minimal nausea and the one day of explosive diarrhea I have from the MTX.
    Based on my own experience, I would be inclined to "blame" the MTX. I know that when the generic manufacturer changed for my med, I got some major GI symptoms. So that makes me think you might have the same problem. I adapted to the new manufacturer's potion, but still have moderate to mild symptoms - hence the move to the injectable MTX.

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  5. Responding about your previous post-You know, the canker sores on your tongue, migraines and the couple different rashes you keep getting really do sound like Lupus. You should have your Dr check into that again-when is the last time they did the big ANA blood panel? If it's been over a year, I'd ask for one looking for Lupus indicators.

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