Common side effects include: hair loss, loss of appetite, nausea/vomiting and joint pain.
Methotrexate is a chemotherapy and immunosuppressive drug. I’ve been relying on it to keep me healthy for the past decade. Why would I be taking this? I have Systemic Onset Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (J.I.A.). This is a chronic disease in which my body’s immune system attacks itself.
This is what I’ve been battling since I was three. I’ve had this disease for so long that doctors have changed the name from Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis to Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. At first, they thought I had leukemia, but after numerous teams of doctors, double bone marrow biopsy and countless tests, they diagnosed me with J.I.A. My J.I.A. was so bad that I had to start taking this medication to be active in my life, such as: walking, eating, bathing. Without this drug, I couldn’t walk more than 10 feet, my mom and dad had to carry me around or I would ride around in a wagon, and the slightest shove would cause excruciating pain.
J.I.A. drained my energy. I would always fall asleep when I went to school on the days I could, and I missed more than half of my kindergarten year.
My body took control—I was imprisoned. Pain was my only option without this medication. I needed Methotrexate. This medication saved me, it allowed me to live my life. Looking back now, I am amazed that I’ve been in remission for three years due to this medication and am a dancer.
Starting to understand my body and how it worked was new to me. I didn’t understand the mechanics of it until dancing occurred. With dancing, every inch of your body has to be in the right spot. When I started learning how to dance, I could remember my initial feeling: fear. Fear that one wrong move would recreate the pain and wouldn’t allow me to move again. Fear that I wouldn’t be able to be ‘normal.’ Once I started going through technique of the different across-the-floors and combinations of choreography, the feeling of excitement and encouragement spread throughout my body. Instead of the jolts of pain I once felt, jolts of adrenaline are what I feel. To this day I still feel the jolts of adrenaline.
For the past two years, my doctors have been winding down my intake on this medicine so I don’t have to rely on it. As of today, I haven’t been taking Methotrexate for three months and am still in remission. Instead of not being able to walk more than 10 feet at a time, I can now dance forever.
– By Carter Owings-Hurgronje
