Hello dawnloree,
The rheumo as told me there's nothing i've excepted it, my main concern now is my lungs and what's the matter with them....i am pleased your doing fine and taking your vitamin D which Ann always recommends being looked into. :) xxx
dawnloree said:
I'm hoping they can find something else to help you. I'm doing great right now...for the moment.. just taking Vit D
Hi Lone Wolf,
If members can get theirs eyes checked every 3mths all the better i say and i do hope your eyes keep fine for you :) xxx
Lone Wolf said:
I've been on and off the plaquenil about five times since the early 1990s. Most recently, I've been on it three years now, since January of 2010. My doctors are vigilant about monitoring my eyes for plauenil damage and, thus, say i must get them checked every 3 months religiously, which i adhere to.
I took p
I took it for 3 weeks at 100mg. Then I started having visual problems. Lots of flashes and black moving objects…I saw all the doctors and no one could figure it out. I have been off it for 3 months and it has never cleared up.
Hello Louise,
Sometimes with certain issues it calls for we to wear glasses...i also advise going to an opticians explain what's happening and also being on the plaquenil and see what their opinion is :) xxx
louise said:
I took it for 3 weeks at 100mg. Then I started having visual problems. Lots of flashes and black moving objects...I saw all the doctors and no one could figure it out. I have been off it for 3 months and it has never cleared up.
Every time I’ve been on plaquenil, I’ve had the same problems with flashes and black floaters. That’s one of the reasons i kept stopping it on my own. This time around, i had those same lightening flashes and floaters from the very first weeks to currently, which is now three years. I’ve told the eye doctor (ophthalmologist) repeatedly, and he won’t definitively tell me about its connection to the plaquenil, but sometimes makes me come in even more frequently, like every two months to monitor the flashes and floaters and do all sorts of tests. He tells me to keep a very close eye on it and come in for an emergency appointment if i have a particulary bad spell of increased flashes, because he says it could be a symptom of a detached retina. So far that has not been the case, but it sure scares me. I just hope and pray that the benlysta i started in October will allow me to eventually get off plaquenil and prednisone, because the prednisone is also messing with my eyes (among other things). I have a steroid-induced cataract on the periphery of my right eye and am on glaucoma drops for the high pressures from the prednisone.
Thank you, Ann. 
Dear Lone Wolf,
I am very sorry to hear about the problems that Plaquenil and Prednisone have caused you. I had floaters in my right eye immediately following the cataract surgery. They almost drove me crazy (crazier). The first time I experienced a floater, I thought there was an insect on the back of the couch and then I thought it was on the wall. It took a bit for me to realize that the creepy crawling thing was in my own eye. I empathize. I wish you the best.
Ann A.
Lone Wolf said:Every time I've been on plaquenil, I've had the same problems with flashes and black floaters. That's one of the reasons i kept stopping it on my own. This time around, i had those same lightening flashes and floaters from the very first weeks to currently, which is now three years. I've told the eye doctor (ophthalmologist) repeatedly, and he won't definitively tell me about its connection to the plaquenil, but sometimes makes me come in even more frequently, like every two months to monitor the flashes and floaters and do all sorts of tests. He tells me to keep a very close eye on it and come in for an emergency appointment if i have a particulary bad spell of increased flashes, because he says it could be a symptom of a detached retina. So far that has not been the case, but it sure scares me. I just hope and pray that the benlysta i started in October will allow me to eventually get off plaquenil and prednisone, because the prednisone is also messing with my eyes (among other things). I have a steroid-induced cataract on the periphery of my right eye and am on glaucoma drops for the high pressures from the prednisone.
Hello Lone Wolf,
I am sorry to hear what you've been going through and not enough attention as been paid but flashes and floaters is a starting of Retinal damage...i think you'll find this link interesting stating that plaquenil can affect the Retinal from a few months to years being on them.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/70935-longterm-side-effects-plaquenil-rheumatoid/
Really you should be fetched off the med incase damage goes to fare.
Hugs Terri xxx
Lone Wolf said:
Every time I've been on plaquenil, I've had the same problems with flashes and black floaters. That's one of the reasons i kept stopping it on my own. This time around, i had those same lightening flashes and floaters from the very first weeks to currently, which is now three years. I've told the eye doctor (ophthalmologist) repeatedly, and he won't definitively tell me about its connection to the plaquenil, but sometimes makes me come in even more frequently, like every two months to monitor the flashes and floaters and do all sorts of tests. He tells me to keep a very close eye on it and come in for an emergency appointment if i have a particulary bad spell of increased flashes, because he says it could be a symptom of a detached retina. So far that has not been the case, but it sure scares me. I just hope and pray that the benlysta i started in October will allow me to eventually get off plaquenil and prednisone, because the prednisone is also messing with my eyes (among other things). I have a steroid-induced cataract on the periphery of my right eye and am on glaucoma drops for the high pressures from the prednisone.
I had a lot of floaters while on Plaquenil. My opthamologist said that he did not see a lot of floaters when he examined my eyes. He said it was entirely possible that the Plaquenil was affecting the part of my brain that controls vision, and that my brain may have been telling me that there were floaters there. He did tell me to come in immediately if the amount of floaters increased or if I saw any flashing.
My eye doc is awesome, and he never saw any changes in my eyes in the few years that I took it. I'm off of it now, as I developed an allergy to it. Once I stopped it, the floaters went away (mostly). From what I have learned, it is not at all uncommon to have floaters with Plaquenil.
redwingfan,
When i was passed for plaquenil by the opthomologist, she said straight away to look for these issues and if they start i'm to come off the med but besides that i have issues with my eyes besides the muscles being damaged from the tegretol i take which is an high dosage daily.
Your correct about floaters being connected with plaquenil and these issues then can lead to damage of the Retinal.
I go every 6 months since I started Plaquenil not too long ago. My dad has eye problems from the lupus and Plaquenil so we make sure we keep our appointments and have an Amsler grid on the refrigerator to check our eyes at home between appointments.