methotrexate injection

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1

Hi all,

Hope you are well. I just need a little reassurance of other peoples experiences. So I was treated with my first dose of methotrexate last Friday as my levels had risen from 406 - 507 during expectant management. I had my bloods done on day 3 which I know can rise due to the injection not being instantaneous but they told me my levels are now 1064 :sob:. The nurse reassured me that this is common and as long as I am not in pain to wait until Fridays bloods. I have my day 7 bloods tomorrow and have a feeling I’m going to be offered the 2nd dose which is fine. I’m just getting really anxious and overthinking about my tube rupturing. I had bleeding a hour a week ago which has now stopped and apart from the odd twinches and back pain I haven’t really had much symptoms. I’m just worried the injection isn’t working as I haven’t had stomach pain etc and that my levels will continue to rise leading to a ruptured tube :disappointed:. Xx

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Hey there,

I’m really sorry to hear about what you are going through. I was treated with MTX and ended up needing a 2nd shot beacause my levels rose do 1800s to 1600s between days 4 and 7, which was 3% shy of the 15% drop they look for. In my case I did have signifiant bleed after the first dose but it seems like that varies a fair bit from one women to the other and I don’t believe it is any sign of the medication not working. In my experience I also had fairly intense pain on and off for over a month after the first injection, including pain so severe I went to the hospital, but I didn’t end up rupturing. I hope that is somewhat hopeful for you despite all that you are going through… do let me know what your results are tmrw. I’ll have my finger crossed for you. Xoxo Cam

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Thank you so much for your message! So my levels haven’t dropped that much :disappointed:. They’ve gone from 1064 to 1058, they called me in for an urgent scan to check for any internal bleeding and said all okay. They have asked me to have more bloods done on Sunday as my body might just be slow reacting to the injection so they want to give it another 48 hours before they decide to give me another dose. Let’s just pray they plummet on Sunday :pray:t2:. Will keep you updated, thanks so much again xx

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So sorry to hear what you went through, Did you end up having to have a second dose? What did they do regarding your pain in hospital?. Touch wood I haven’t had much pain or bleeding as of yet so I consider myself lucky. I’ve heard of starving the body of folate to help the injection work, so I’ve cut out green veg and fruit and used it as an excuse to eat crap basically lol xx

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Hey,

I’m sorry about your levels but glad to hear they didn’t find any internal bleeding. It’s nice that they monitor you before deciding on the 2nd injection. In my case they asked me to come for it right after they shared the day 7 results (so day 8 ).

I’m in Canada and they don’t insist as much on food after MTX so I didn’t change my eating that much (lots of cookies, though!! :P), bur I’ve heard some folks here suggest that might help!

The pain that sent me to hospital wasn’t really explained to me clearly. They said it might have been the medication ‘doing its work’ because my hormones definitely dropped after the 2nd injection. They gave me better pain meds that I took for 24 hrs before my pain eased off a bit. I continued to take paracetamol for a few weeks after but the pain never got that sharp again.

Here’s the details of my journey in case that helps, re: summary of my HCG levels:

Feb 11: 900

Feb 13: 1125 (ultrasound confirmed left side ectopic)

Feb 14 – MTX dose 1

Feb 18 (d4): 1846

Feb 21 (d7): 1613 (-12%, insufficient drop)

Feb 22 – MTX dose 2

Feb 24 – ER visit for intense pain (no evidence of rupture found)

Feb 26 (d4): 415

Mar 1 (d7): 83

Mar 8: 7

Mar 15: 1

Keep me posted on your next results. I’l have my fingers crossed for you! Xo