yeah i am still having really bad side effects from the meds i am on: the prednisone obviously makes me just evil and moody but the plaquenil gives me intense stomach cramps, headaches, and nausea that i cannot deal with. my dr told me last week to give it another week and see of the side effects go away but they havent. on top of that i still alternate between cant sleep and just being so bone tired i wanna cry. yeah time for a new idea med wise...
on top of that both of my kids are sick, my 3 year old has croup and my son has an infection in the lymph nodes in his neck, so ya know who is now sicker than sick-momma...ugh!
Erica -
Plaq works as an antimarial killing microbes. How long have you been on it? And if something is going around the house...maybe you're fighting the microbes AND something that's going around the house.
Hugs,
Pip
Edited because I spelled your name wrong -Hi Erica, I've been on 400mg Plaquenil a day for a while now and at first I
had terrible side effects such as nausea, stomach pain, and diarrhea. But
then I figured out I must take the plaquenil on a really full stomach. I mean a
full meal and not just a snack or a cracker or a piece of toast, with a least
some carbs. Now I almost never experience those side effects. I take the
400mg all at once once a day.
To the top -
Anybody else have some suggestions?
Pip
OMG, all I can say is I'm so sorry you are going through this 'awful' meds problem and your little children are sick at the same time.
You must be overwhelmed. Maybe you should call your doc and let him/her know the circumstances. Maybe just pred (you could experiment with the amount, yourself....less might help) Please call your doctor you can't do this! Lynda
Erica, When I first started Plaquenil, I had terrible nausea and stomach cramps for the first week and a half or so, then no side effects at all. Did your RD have you start off with 1 pill a day and then increase to 1 pill twice a day the second week? Try some yogurt. I have to take all of this crap with yogurt to keep my poor stomach from just killing me. I did not have a good reaction to plaq...so you do not want to hear my story! University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha 68198-3025, USA. jrodell@unmc.edu OBJECTIVE:
To compare the efficacy of minocycline with that of a conventional
disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD), hydroxychloroquine, in
patients with early seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS:
Sixty patients with seropositive RA of <1 year's duration who had
not been previously treated with DMARDs were randomized to receive
minocycline, 100 mg twice per day, or hydroxychloroquine, 200 mg twice
per day, in a 2-year, double-blind protocol. All patients also received
low-dose prednisone. The primary end points of the study were 1) the
percentage of patients with an American College of Rheumatology (ACR)
50% improvement (ACR50) response at 2 years, and 2) the dosage of
prednisone at 2 years. RESULTS: Minocycline-treated patients were more
likely to achieve an ACR50 response at 2 years compared with
hydroxychloroquine-treated patients (60% compared with 33%,
respectively; P = 0.04). Minocycline-treated patients were also
receiving less prednisone at 2 years compared with the
hydroxychloroquine group (mean 0.81 mg/day compared with 3.21 mg/day,
respectively; P < 0.01). In addition, patients treated with
minocycline were more likely to have been completely tapered off
prednisone (P = 0.03). Trends favoring the minocycline treatment group
were seen when outcomes were assessed according to components of the
ACR core criteria set, with the differences reaching statistical
significance for patient's global assessment of disease activity (P =
0.004). CONCLUSION: Minocycline is an effective DMARD in patients with
early seropositive RA. Patients treated with minocycline were more
likely to achieve an ACR50 response and did so while receiving less
prednisone. In addition, minocycline-treated patients were more likely
to have discontinued treatment with prednisone at 2 years. PMID: 11665963 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Sigh. O'Dell used to be my hero. Pip Erica, I'm surprised your RD said you could take both pills at once. That's just looking for trouble when you're new to the drug. Plaq. made me queasy for a couple of days (one 200 mg. a.m. and p.m.) even with food, but got better soon after. Have you been taking both pills together? Try one at a time if you haven't, with lots of carbs. I know you said you've taken it with food, but I'm not sure if that was one pill or two. I wonder if you could even divide it more? With a pill splitter, to make it easier to tolerate. I always feel bad when I read the posts of parents feeling ill and having to deal with family issues and work problems at the same time. I hope you all heal quickly. Erica I've had similar GI problems with the meds that you're listing. The nausea, stomach cramps and diarhhea sound so familiar. Something that has really helped me with the side effects is taking an enteric coated probiotic. I'd started plaquenil in Sept and stopped it after 13 days... every day was awful. Not only was I having the GI problems I'd had with mtx, my hands started itching too. About two weeks ago someone posted a thread asking about probiotics and that made me think about the ones I took with antibiotics about 1 1/2 years ago. I'm sensitive to meds and antibiotics literally run right through me. When I took the probiotic (1 per day not at the same time as the antibiotic) I had absolutely no problems with the antibiotic. So now I've started plaq again along with a daily probiotic and the GI issues are gone. The itching's still there... now, it's sometimes my arms and legs but it hasn't gotten any worse in intensity.
Caringly, HappHey Erica. I don't have any advice, I haven't taken Plaq. I just feel sorry for you, having to go through all this while taking care of the little sickos. A mom's job doesn't stop just cuz of a little disease, does it??
and no qween b he started me out on two a day...and he said i could take both at the same time if i wanted to.
i talked to him some about AP and he said that he has patients that are are Doxycycline and methotrextae and that they have been helped by that combination. i asked him if i stopped taking all my meds that were making me sick and i didnt have any symptoms could i stay off meds and consider it remission and he said yes and no, that i could have a super flare and i could be in worse pain than before that sometimes going off your meds makes your symptoms return with a vengence and you pay the price, or that the oppposite could happen and i would be in remission. i asked him if i just had a flase sense of security bc the meds were working and he said possibly. i guess i started to have some denial that anything is wrong bc i have no pain, but the meds make me sick as crap, so i questioned his diagnosis some and had a more open dialouge about it and i feel a little better and i am going to give the prilosec a chance, and if it doesnt work then i am gonna be more insistent on a change of meds...
okay, my first post I had here was not accurate. Doxycycline is a
tetracycline that is used in AP sometimes instead of minocycline. What
I have is a study showing minocycline to be MORE effective than
hydroxychloroquine (plaquenil) in the treatment of arthritis.
From: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=S howDetailView&TermToSearch=
11665963&ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez. Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_
RVDocSum
Treatment of early seropositive rheumatoid arthritis: a two-year, double-blind comparison of minocycline and hydroxychloroquine.
May the force be with him.
haha i think i upset the dr bc i questioned his diagnosis and ya know (the denial thing) asked him if he was tetotally positively sure i had ra, and if i stopped the pred and had to pain was i in remission and if i still needed to take the plaq and had a brief AP convo with him! he sighed when i asked, haha bc he gets the question alot actually, and launched into how the one antibiotic helped and yada yada yada and how plaq was an antibiotic. he was helpful and wants to give the prilosec a chance, which i will...
on a more natural front i have slowly but surely changed my diet to include more fresh veggies and fruits, more lean protein like chicken and fish, and have started doing yoga and pilates (at my own personal level, the uber easy one) and weight lifting. (aka 5 lb dumbbells) but my bff is a trainer and he gave me some simple yet productive exercises to help promote building some good muscles, yet isnt too taxing. i like the effect of the diet gives me more energy. the yoga and pilates is helping with the flexibility and makes me feel better, like the exercise is helping get my body back in shape without being too high impact. i am hoping that the longer i can keep my body strong and flexible will help with the progression of the ra. even if it doesnt it helps me feel better mentally when my my body is aching or hurting from the ra.
so all in all meds suck, and diet and exercise (even if just psychosomatically) are helping! my friends say i should stop taking the meds and switch to pot, LMAO! since i have never done that i laugh
Erica, it sounds like you're really proactive with your health and doing everything you can on your own. I wish I could offer you some sage advice to get you through the meds problem. Only you and your doctor can decide on the next step. I sure hope it works out for you. At least your RD sounds like he's open to discussion about options, your opinions, etc. That's something positive.
Food sources of probiotcs include live culture yogurt and kefir,
unpasteurized miso, and unpasteurised pickled vegetables (particularly
sauerkraut).
Many strains of probiotics can also be purchased in pill, liquid
(yogurt based) or powder form at the pharmacy. Look for brands with
varied probiotic cultures and enteric coating so the probiotics have a
better chance of getting past the stomach acid and into the gut.
When taking probiotics, be they food or pill form, you will get better
results by boosting the probiotic with prebiotics. Prebiotics are foods
that the friendly bacteria like to eat and help them multiply.
Prebiotic foods inlcude but are not limited to berries, oatmeal,
legumes, and Jerusalem artichokes (I love Jerusalem artichokes).
A live culture kefir or yogurt and berry smoothie is a great probiotic snack, as it has both probiotics and prebiotics.
I've recently read that homemade kefir might be the best probiotic
because it has a very broad spectrum of bacteria and that bacteria
colonises in your gut whereas probiotics taken in pill form only live
in your gut on a transient basis and are expelled within a few days. I
have no idea of the validity of this).
Yeast also lives in your gut and if you have too much candida yeasts in
your sytem it can lead to acute health problems. Candida and probiotics
fight for space, so if you want the probiotics to win there are ways
you can handicap the candida, with not eating sugar, or white flour, or
things with yeast in them like alcohol or vinegars.
I was always on the brink of having yeast problems on AP but lately
since I have been getting more probiotics in food and that's helping. I
also now take oil of oregano which is an antifungal and helps with
yeast. I haven't felt "yeastie" for quite a while now, so I may be
getting a grip on it.
Now to increase more my probiotic intake...
Look, all I can say is that it is absolutely essential that Plaq or Sulfa or MTX or Arava absolutely MUST be taken with a FULL meal. A large one...like someone else said with carbs pasta or potato. Those meds all need that meal to sit on and stop effecting your stomach.
Like for dinner...potatoes, vegies, meat or pasta, cheese, vegies. or if it's breakfast...cereal, then yoghurt and eggs with toast.
This meds just so need a basis like that or you will have trouble.
You just can't get away with them with even toast or cereal it needs to be a solid amount of food, really solid otherwise yes, your stomach will react.
I have been on all of them at one time or combos of them and found I had no problems provided I gave them a solid basis in my stomach.
Try it and see if it helps.
Hiya, Erica! It's been a while since you first posted this. Are you doing any better? Have you found the right drug combo yet?
Copyright ArthritisInsight.com