minocycline | Arthritis Information

Back from my first visit w/a new rheumy. I'm the person who woke up following a flu shot with stiff, painful hands, painful shoulders wrists and arms. That was 3 mo. ago. I started prednisone and got up to 15 mg per day and then slowly came down to 5. At no time was I free from pain. I have a history of Sjogrens so had those blood tests that also showed a positive RA factor, to the new Dr. She said I have RA and the Sjogrens was secondary. Anyway - she sent me for more blood tests and hand Xrays and told me to stay on the 5 mg of pred. and start on minocycline. So far I'm on my own as to how to ease the pain. I've been using otc pain meds but they don't help much.

Is the minocycline supposed to ease the pain? and when? Help.

Mandy

Well, I wish I had your rheumatologist is all I can say. To learn more about
treating RA with minocycline go to www.roadback.org or check out any of
the many threads on this site that talk about AP. AP stands for Antibiotic
Protocol which is a kind of therapy some people use for RA. I just started it
myself, but I had to do allmy research on my own and then bring it to my
doctor! Out of all the drugs you could be put on minocycline is probably the
safest.PS. I'm not trivialising your pain but I've found the most effective thing I do
to manage pain is exercise.Wow, you do seem to have a very good rheumy! Very few of them will even offer AP to their patients, unless the patients practically demand it. The mino is not a painkiller, some docs use it for its anti-inflammatory effects, some believe that it attacks microorganisms that are causing RA. In any case it very often helps, but takes time and patience. Also, the dose has to be adjusted for each person, so you don't "herx", which is similar to a flare. Take some time and read up on all aspects of AP on roadback.org or rheumaticsupport.net. The people there can answer almost any question about AP. And stick around here for the great moral support and voices of experience. In addition, I would call your rheumy and say you need something stronger for pain, that the OTC meds aren't cutting it. The mino takes time, and no need to suffer needlessly. God Bless! Pat

Damn -

I'm on my 10th or 11 MD trying to get a doc to monitor me on AP. You don't realize it yet, but you just hit the AP lotto. The hardest part is finding a doc that will support AP!

Please go to the Roadback of Rheumatic.org as suggested and read about this form of treatment. It is eye opening. And so full of hope.

And I agree with Pat - in the beginning my pain was so bad even Morphine couldn't cut it out - you need stronger pain meds to get you through the beginning. You should have a pain free life ahead of you.

Pip

You really have to ask for what you need. Like 'I need better pain relief than OTC, would you please write me a script?' I find they do not volunteer to write for pain meds - but I have never had one say 'No' when directly asked.It's working great for me...Orthotec-75 ..twice a day. I'm so thankful...I hope you get some relief.Wow, you did hit the jackpot with your Dr! Although, I agree with everyone else, call them up and make them call you in some painkillers. No Dr has EVER offered them to me (well, my RD does now, but thats causemy DH made a stink, and then I went in WITHOUT any pain meds, and they saw my sky-high "almost put midgie in the hospital it's so high" BP and pulse, and now he DEMANDS I take painkillers. hahahahaha).

I'm so interested in the AP therapy stuff, but I don't have an RA factor (and from what I've read, it's best to have an RA factor for it to help), although this all DID start about a week after a BAD run-in with a case of mastitis over the summer. But I'm allergic to SO many antibiotics, that when I mentioned it to my RD, he doesn't want to do it unless it's a last resort, for fear of a wicked allergic reaction (which with a husband who's out of town or the COUNTRY about 70% of the time, we have to be SUPER careful about that, since I'm home alone with two young children). So, who knows. It's something I may look into down the road, but everytime I'm on antibiotics for something, all the side effects, yeah, I get them. Totally stinks. *sigh*

Midge,

There are many, many people on AP without being RF positive. It will work for just about anybody with enough tweaking (in my opinion LOL).

Minocin is one of the tetracycline class drugs - very old fashioned - and are very safe to take. If you look at the PDR for possible drug reactions, Minocin is probably one of the safest out there. At the end of the PDR stuff, possible allergic reactions are listed.

NOT BEING A DOCTOR - I want to give you my take on the allergies on Mino. I question why they happen about a year into treatment? That makes no sense to me.

Food allergies come on at the 2nd exposure to a substance. For example, nuts or peas or whatever. The body has a chemical reaction to the substance and on that 2nd exposure produces chemicals to protect the body from the offending food.

Yet on the Mino, when ever anybody posts about 'their doc says it's an allergic reaction' (this is RARE!!!) they are always around a year into treatment. Heck, I have drug allergies and was EXPECTING this so when I first got pneumonia I kept expecting the docs to say pneumonitis instead of pneumonia (but they didn't).

I am allergic to some meds - and my exposure to these meds came after YEARS of using them. So...what happened?

I ask myself do these microbes - which have the ability of molecular mimicry - have the ability to inflame our lungs or nervous systems (drug induced Lupus) to imitate a disease that we do not have? And do doctors, unfamiliar with these EXTREMELY RARE side effects err on the side of cautiousness and pull us off a medication that is working because they FEAR and DO NOT UNDERSTAND what is happening?

The only personal example I can give for this is my recent case of pneumonia. 2 docs said pneumonia. I passed all pneumonia tests including a lung X-ray. I could not breathe (as usual for me) and had extreme pain in my lower right lung lobe that made walking impossible. My ribs hurt, as usual, from all that hacking. I looked awful. I could not breathe. (Did I mention that before LOL). So, they brought me in every 2 days to make sure that the super kick butt antibiotic they had given me was working. Yesterday, I see a doc for the 3rd time since diagnosis - and he says 'no pneumonia'. Hubby and I stand there dumb-founded. How can that be? "But the X-ray shows patchy blotches typical of atypical pneumonia" we say. "But it wasn't pneumonia" he says. So what is it that can look like pneumonia and NOT be pneumonia? They downgraded me to bronchitis. And said it was probably viral in origin. But not to stop the antibiotics. Hmmmmmm. THAT makes sense.

Which side effects do you get from antibiotics? And you might look into therapy to get you over the allergies to meds. I am starting to look into it for me as I intend to do one of the advanced protocols and some of those require antibiotic regimes that I am allergic to. But I want to do it so I have to desensitize my body.

Pip