I went to my Rheumatoid Arthritis doctor today. He wasn't too pleased with the lack of progress over the past 6 weeks, in fact things had worsened (not just in my mind!). Sooooo.... he changed my meds to Arava. He told me some mild side effects but told me it required to have blood tests done every 6 weeks just like I did with the Methotrexate. No big deal. Its really expensive and they may have to send a letter to my insurance if they rejected the claim but thankfully they approved it, no problem. So, I get home and started searching the web for info on Arava. THIS is what I found. Scary! I'm wondering if I should even take it now. I don't remember this much negativity on the Methotrexate, although the main thing they checked for was liver toxitity. I'm nervous about taking this, although I trust my doctor. Not sure what I'll do... guess I'll sleep on it and see how I feel abou it in the morning. If this doesn't work then I'll have to start using Remacade which scares the hell out of me for some reason. I read about it when I was first diagnosed, so maybe it was the whole RA thing that scared me more than anything. When I think of Remacade, I think of the "big leagues" of serious meds. 3-hour sessions of introvenious treatments. Its also really expensive. Dr B is having his staff check to see if my insurance will cover it, for future reference. Other than that, it was a pretty busy day. I really hate Mondays. Today went really fast though, which was nice. 1 day down, 3 to go!