Oh Caspiana "only" yesterday you felt like a hypochondriac?!? LOL Isn\'t that suppose to be a daily feeling with RA?

I know my ALT raised a little - not much but like by 10 since starting on MTX and Enbrel. I wonder if he was thinking oh you are having more wine with your dinners or drinking early in the morning to fix the stiffness (which I highly doubt you are on both cases)?!?

If it\'s not the drugs doing it then why do they specifically test you for it when taking them would be my question back to him!

And the CRP remaining the same does not mean we don\'t feel pain or have new issues. Sometimes the snap shot just doesn\'t match up for me. LOL I once had a really high CRP and felt fairly good for me. My Rhuemy then informed me no I didn\'t. Ah too funny.

You are completely sane my dear lady. Hope the levels don\'t sky rocket to toxic levels and the knee pain goes away in spite of a non-changing CRP!

I got a call from my rheumy\'s office yesterday. My liver enzymes were elevated. I most definitely believe it is the meds for me. This happened once before.

Methotrexate, Acetaminophen and alcohol are all toxic and hard on the liver. Taking one, two or all three of these can result in elevated liver enzymes - that\'s why you are supposed to have regular blood tests to monitor those levels about every two months. My enzymes were elevated and nothing we did brought them down so the doc took away the MTX, I backed off of alcohol and started using Ibuprofen instead of Tylenol. It took over a year to ge them down so my dr will not be giving me MTX again (too bad cause it really helps me).

There are a lot of other drugs that are hard on the liver ask your pharmacist he/she will tell you - they also took me off Zocor for high cholesterol for the same reason. There are also foods that aren\'t so good for your liver either - lunchmeats and smoked meats are full of Nitrites and Nitrates which are not good for the liver - if I could get away with it I would eat Bacon every chance I got, lol!

Anyway, I don\'t know why a dr would tell you it can\'t be the meds - I mean you could be more sensitive to their effects then the norm. Good luck, I hope you figure it out...hugs jilly

I never been a drinker, but sometimes when a party or a Holiday I could have a glass of champain or wine... Since I am on all my medication - I never had even one sip of alcohol, this means I did not try alcohol for more than 3 years. I did not miss it at all.
When after 3 month being on Meth, my Ra called and said that liver enzymes got higher - stop taking for a while until next blood work shows everything is back to normal.
I had to stop and could only get back to take Meth after blood work showed my enzymes are fine. My Ra explained to me that this is all due to medication and has nothing to do with food... See, how different their views are? And stopping Meth for a while showed in my case that this was caused by medication!
Go figure!

I take Metho and one time RA called and said not to take it for one week and then come in to be checked again.. So it figures its the meds. I thought thats what they were taking all the blood for, I even drink wine occasionally. Also my blood work never supported RA.So certainly you could have new pain without your numbers changing. This doesn,t make sense at all???

I have been reading up about MTX and it does seem to cause (in some cases)liver damage. Why my dr. continues to insist it has nothing to do with it I have no idea at all. Now I am in a dilemma. Should I stop taking the MTX and see what happens or not? I have stopped the pain pills now and am managing ok. He didn\'t tell me to stop nor did he decrease the dosage.

Thank you all for your advice though. It\'s really helpful for me. *Hugs to you all*