Hello, everyone! My name is Jennifer and I am new to your group. My husband suggested I join a group for support since I am jumping into massive DRUGS and NO CLUE what is going on with my body. I am on daily: 20 mg of Arava and 200 mg of Plaquinel. Then, I inject Humira twice a month (bi-weekly). I'm losing my mind. I just started Plaquinel a few weeks ago and I am feeling TERRIBLE. I have everything from dizziness to depression. I can't eat anything...I've lost lots of weight (perk, but not nearly close when you feel like JUNK all day long). I can't even focus on anything...I have to remember to breathe. I feel horrible...like I am just trying to exist. I am not sleeping at all at night. Not due to pain at all....just don't get into deep sleep or feel sleepy. You know, that drowsy sleep feeling. Basically I am an insomniac...never experienced anything like it before. SO, I called my RA doc...she told me the drugs had none of these side effects and told me to stay on them and she would give me a sleep aid and an anti-depressant...WHAT?!!!
HELP!!! Are all doctors like this. I have not met ONE RA doc w/ a good bed side manner. Has anyone else felt like this...I HATE IT!! I just want it all to go away...
Am I alone? Sorry for the long message...just figured some background would be good. I've had RA for three years now...I'm 31.
hi jen, nice to meet you . i have found all the people on this board to be friendly and really supportive. I have psoriatic arthritis and felt really alone until i came to this site . luckily i have a good rheumy who is also a friend of my local gp . all the best with your search to get the right combo af medications , i know that some take months before noticing any relief . Welcome to AI Jen. I'm so sorry your feeling bad. When were you dx'd? I too have a hard time going to sleep at night so I am always tired. I am afraid of taking a sleep aid because I have a 3 yr old. A lot of us here are on anti-depressants. Depression comes with the illness.
Hi Jen,
I'm also new to the board, and just want to say welcome. Although I don't have any trouble falling asleep at night (unless I'm having severe pain) I do take an anti-depressant on a daily basis. I'm on Cymbalta, because according to my rheumatologist, it helps not only with depression (which is a big part of dealing with this disease) but it has also been reported to help with peripheral pain. I've been on it for almost 2 years and and I can definitely say that it has helped with the blues/depression, but really can't say for sure if it's done anything for the pain.
Hope you get your sleeping problem worked out!
I just wanted to say welcome. I felt like crap the first month or so on plaquinil, but then it got better. I no longer have that I don't ever want to eat again feeling. Good luck to you.Hi Jen...welcome!
Hi Jen, WELCOME !! ,
and no Wonder!!, you are feeling depressed and not sleeping. You have had a serious shock to yur system, just finding out you have this crap, can make you feel crapy. YOU are on a mega dose of medication. We all complain that out meds don't work soon enough, we have to wAIT for the meds to take affect. I'm sorry you feel so bad and can't sleep.....that doesn't help your state of mind. I don't take any of the drugs you have been given, so I can't give you first hand knowledge, but I know these drugs are powerful and that the docs don't always know what drugs do to specific people!! Keep calling the office and tell anyone who will listen to you how you feel !!....I have never taken an anti-depressant but I know people who benefit from it.
There is for sure a lot of SORTING out of meds, that is normal, but you have 3 to deal with???, other's here can probably help you better. Do you have pain and swelling, stiffness? I'm glad you found us, me
Hi Jennifer and welcome to AI...I'm sorry you're not feeling well.
I could be wrong be it sounds to me like you've been on an emotional rollercoaster (been there done that and still take the ride sometimes). I'm glad you found your way to the board and it was a grand idea that hubby suggested it.
Is it possible that you are not eating or sleeping because your nerves are shot? I can't help you with the lack of appetite as I eat like a starving hefer.
As for your RD, if you don't think it's working out or aren't comfortable...find one you can be a team with. I've had some nightmare experiences with my RD but because he IS very intelligent when it comes to this disease, I decided to give him "one" more chance. I wrote him a letter and had a very serious conversation with him. Basically letting him know that I needed his undivided attention in our appointments and I needed to know that we would be a team in getting this disease under control. If that was too much, then I needed to move on. I was very please with him at my appointment yesterday and am hoping that he will continue to be the doctor that I saw yesterday. If not, my feet will hit the pavement faster than lightning and I won't look back. This is our health we are talking about and these RD's are not just doctors we see every year or so. It's very important that we have good communication with them and walk out of our appointments feeling confident.
My RD gave me a script for Plaquenil at my appointment yesterday so I'll be able to talk with you more about it once it kicks in. I'm also on Celebrex, Enbrel, Prednisone along with other various meds and pain killers.
Has anyone else felt like this...I HATE IT!! I just want it all to go away...
Yes, we have...We all HATE it and we'd all like for it to crawl back under whatever rock it came from. You are not alone. There are a lot of wonderful, caring, supportive and helpful people on these boards along with limitless information to help you.
Peace & Love...Neasy
Hi Jennifer and welcome to AI.
You are not alone in the way you are feeling. Many of us feel that way or have felt that way about wanting all this to go away.
As Neasy so well stated, sleep disorders and depression are sometimes part of this illness. Sometimes we do need something to help us sleep and help with our moods. I was on Prozac for about 6 months and it helped a whole lot. And I am one of those relatively calm laid back people and I still needed something for depression.
We are here for ya!!!
You are sooo NOT alone! We are all in the room with you, watch out it will be pretty crowded soon. We have ALL been there and many of us still are there. Not sleeping is certainly not helping. A few years ago I wondered why I felt like crap all the time. I was sleeping about 2-3 hours a night. My dr sent me for a sleep study and after I got up they asked me how my night had been and I said pretty good, I had slept for about 4 hours!. They looked at my like I was nuts. When I went to the specialist she said that I never even reached REM sleep. Once I got started on some meds for my restless legs I actually started to sleep and I amazingly started slowly feeling more human. I still don't sleep great, but am getting much more sleep than I was. Maybe a sleep study would be somewhere to start, it might be able to find out WHY you arent sleeping well instead of just throwing more meds at it.
Now at least you can come here and post when you can't sleep...
Plaq didn't do anything for me or to me but I wasn't taking 20mg of Arava back then. Sometimes if you tough it out the bad tummy will go away. I can't sleep on a sick stomach either. Does an antacid like Wild Cherry Mylanta help? Lack of good sleep will produce all manner of rotten feelings, good sleep is a necessity for feeling half way decent. You might try a tab of benedryl.
I had horrible side effects when I first started plaquenil and when you tell