coming out of lurker mode....have been prescribed Arava..will start tomorrow..currently on 5 mg pred on alternate days..I googled Arava and there is some scary stories out there...I am unfortunatly also a person who suffer from panic attacks..so I take 1/2 of .5 mg clonazepam tablet everyday. So my question is what is the best time of day to take Arava and with what foods..am very nervous to take my loading dose but RA has progress to nodules so new rheumy wants me on it....since i was lucky enough to find this team at the hospital I feel I have no choice but to begin this therapy...Any suggestion would be sooooo appreciated....thks for your time
I don't take Arava, but I found this for you
http://www.arava.com/patient/about_arava/arava_medication_fa qs.do
Where in Canada are you? I'm in Ontario.
Good Luck,
Kelly
My mom has been on Arava for about 5 years or so. She started at 10mg and bumped to 20 because she still had a little pain. She takes that and MTX and has had little to no side effects from it.I take Arava right before bed. I don't see a differance if I eat or not. I've been on it for several years and have never had any problems with it.
Best of luck to you
I have been on Arava for 6 years now. I take it in the morning with liquids. I am not much of a morning eater. I just stopped "Arava 20mg every day" last Thursday because it gave me terrible stomach pains and diarrhea. I was on it about 6 weeks before I noticed any nasty side effects. I'm not having any joint pain....yet. The stomach pains went away 4 days after stopping the drug. I'd be willing to try it again though because it did eradicate the joint pain. Maybe I'll try 10mg this time.Hi and welcome. I hope that this will maybe help any of you out there that are struggling with the anxiety over starting these meds, and the side effects that you read about.
If you read the side effects of almost every med on the market, there are less than favorable responses.
You will also find that in clinical studies, many people experienced side effects but were actually given placebos and not the actual drug.
The side effects that many of us do get, come gradually and are bothersome, sometimes not even bad enough to stop taking the med.
Usually the side effects are not really even as bad as living with RA with no meds at all.
We pretty much all get nervous at first, it is a normal reaction, but dont let the horror stories scare you.
There are websites dedicated to the defamation of every drug, food, other product that you can imagine. You cant please all of the people all of the tiime, and there are always people who like to band together to make their bad experiences known.
You may have a)side effects that you dont like, or b) it may be a miracle drug for you.
If you explore the general reaction of the variouse meds used by posters here, you will find that the most common response is choice c) drug is tolerable, but RA is still around, drug doesnt work after all.
I am not trying to sound discouraging, I know exactly where you are coming from. Just hang in there, take a chance...and Good Luck to you!