I mentioned in my last post that M would be starting on Methotrexate (oral). She started at the end of July. She takes pills orally once a week, then a Folic Acid vitamin 24 hours later. We missed a dose the second week because she had some odd test results that made the doc’s office want to make sure she didn’t have a latent Tuberculosis infection… odd, I know, but a blood test came back + for Tb, so we retested with a few different methods, and it was negative. I have no idea what would cause a false +, but it happens. Anyways, after we confirmed M didn’t have latent Tb, we resumed her MTX. She has been tolerating it very well… only a few upset stomachs here and there, but overall it has gone better than I expected. M also learned that she can swallow pills with no problem, and without having to taken them with something like applesauce or pudding. What 6 year old do you know of who would skip applesauce or chocolate pudding to take pills with just water??? Silly girl. So At this point, we have weaned down on her eye drops to 1 drop of steroid a day, plus2 drops of pressure lowering drops per day… Did you get that??? We are down to ONLY 3 DROPS… per day!!!! 2 in the morning, 1 at bedtime. Whoo-hoo! We have an eye appointment next week, so we will see how long we stay at this level, but the goal is to try to get her off the eye drops completely and hope (and pray) that the MTX is enough to suppress her immune system just enough to keep her eye calm and flare free.
It is SO NICE to not have to think about eye drops all day, let me tell ya!!! She also had photos taken of her retina and optic nerve to make sure there was no damage or inflammation. Everything looks normal. The scar tissue that she already has in her left eye that makes her pupil an odd shape will stay there. We are no longer dilating her eye twice a day… since it has not gone away by now, it is very unlikely that it ever will. It’s not too big a deal because she hasn’t had any problems from it. Her vision in her “bad” eye is 20/30, so we are thankful (and blessed) that the inflammation didn’t cause more damage than that.
So that’s where we are… she has a follow-up Rheumatologist appt next week as well. I don’t anticipate any new news… it’s just a follow-up to see how she is tolerating the MTX, get prescription refills, and figure out when she is due for her next blood test. We aren’t looking forward to that, but we know it must be done. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers, as always, and please keep them going.