Hi Becky, I was at 20 mgs./wk before I found good control with MTX. Sadly I
can relate to the side effects, which for me included mouth sores, fatigue,
hair loss and frequent nausea on the dosage day and the day after. Folic
Acid and Leucovorin are a big help to lots of people, but they didn't do
enough for me. Enbrel was added and I did great with it, enough so that I
was able to stop MTX.

I hope you are soon feeling some positive benefits.

Kelly C.;o)

I'm currently taking 15 mg MTX and Enbrel. Usually, the combination
controls everything with few if any side effects, but I'm currently
flaring.  I'm sure it's just stress and as soon as the summer sessions
are over (I teach college, and for some reason I agreed to teach 5
classes over the summer) things will calm down and the flare will
subside.

Katrina

I am taking 12.5 mg, 50 cc, by injection.  I have been on it for about two
months.  I still have days when my hands are pretty painful but overall I
have less pain.  I had some bouts with fatigue but seem to be getting past
that.  

My doc started me out on 10 mg, 40 cc, for a month and then did lab work to
check my liver functions etc.  That is when he eased me up to 12.5 mg.  I
too have to take about 2.5 mg of folic acid to prevent mouth sores.  I seem
to have an indicator spot on the tip of my tongue that gets sensitive when
my folic acid is low.  I am sure your doc explained that MTX is an advesary
to folic acid.  It must gobble it up big time because if I don't take the
supplements I know almost immediatly by the tip of my tongue.  

I have to say that so far the improvements have not been dramatic but there
is improvement.  Most of the literature indicates that MTX takes from two
to six months to start showing any benefit.

But hey, who am I to know?  There are others on this newsgroup that have
much more eperience than I so maybe they will chime in and help us all out.

I started noticing some  improvement at 15 mg, had more improvement at 20.  
Eventually that faded and we had to add Arava, but I have PA rather than RA.  
Also, I had to be at 15 mg for about a month before it started working for
me.  I had lots of fatigue at first, but after 3 or 4 weeks at a given dose,
it began to ease off.  I suspect the pain you are having is the disease
battling it out with the mtx, and that should improve on a higher dose that
will win out over the RA more.