I know Relafen can take up to 2 weeks to start working...but I am impatient. I have been on 1000 mg a day for a week and no relief, also taking Tylenol Arthritis 1300 mg twice a day.
Anyone else finding relief with these? How long until it helps?
Relafen is just another NSAID. If it's not working for you, your doc can switch you to another one. Not all NSAIDs work for all people. Personally, naproxen (taken at twice the OTC dosage is my NSAID of choice if I'm throwing a flare. It works as well or better than any prescription NSAID I've tried, with the exception of Toradol (and you can't take that for more than a couple days).
I was on Toradol for 10 days and it put me to sleep nicely. I was actually on it for a persistent migraine, it did the job, but like you said it's only for short term use. Naproxen has never worked for me when I have taken it for general pain and it gives me nasty reflux too. I think I'll give it another week and then call the Dr because I don't meet my Rheumy until July 16.
I also had good results from Mobic (generic: meloxicam), which is also much easier on the stomach than naproxen and other NSAIDs.
After my c-sections, I was given a shot of Toradol for pain. The morphine PCA pump did absolutely nothing except make me throw up; once I got the Toradol shot (only got one) I felt so much better. I also got switched to oral pain meds (tylenol 3, I think) instead of the automated vomit pump.
Since then, when I've had surgery, I make sure to tell the surgeon and anesthesiologist to peg me with toradol before they wake me up, and to have two Vicodin and a Coke waiting for me. I insist that I do not want or need that damn PCA machine.
Agree with Jas that if it's not working for you, talk to the doc about trying another. I'm on Relafen and have been for years, so unfortunately I don't have a good memory of how long it took to kick in. But I've been on most other NSAID's (with the exception of naproxen, toradol, and the COX-2 inhibitors) and several worked for me for a long time, including Mobic, DayPro and Voltaren.
You need to give Relafen about 2 weeks or so to really do its thing. For some reason it seems to start working about three days after you are ready to toss the pills in the trash.
I'm on 1500 a day. That's max I think.