Plaquenil question: Been on it for 3 months, lots of GI upset. Rheumy halved the dose Friday, and now I have BAD joint pain. Is it the dose?
I have a call in to the doc to see what she thinks. Do any of you plaquenil users have trouble with stomach cramping and diarrhea? Do you take a second medication to balance this out?
I been on it for 6 months now and I have experienced stomach pain and diarrhea as well. My rheumy told me that this could happen. Not sure about the joint pain, as I have not seen any reduction in my pain yet. Now that the temperature has gotten colder, I am having more pain. Everyone tolerates med's differently. Talk to your doc as soon as possible.
She called right back. She is a great doc so far. She said yes, that dropping form 400 mg to 200 mg was probably causing the increase in joint pain, stiffness, and swelling. So, now I'm doing 300 mg, which is a tablet and a half, to see how that goes.
I am just surprised how dramatically worse I felt being off a slow-acting drug like plaquenil. Lesson learned, I guess! Do any of you all have a roller coaster response with missed/decreased plaquenil?
Plaquenil is slow to start working but once in effect its job is to maintain suppression and yes symptoms can immediately surface once the 'guard' is no longer on duty Try taking your plaquenil at bedtime so you can sleep thru some of the side effects You also can use something like a small dose of pepto bismol or kaopectate to counteract the side effects
This is so helpful! Thank you. I've been doing 200 in the morning 200 at dinner, and then pretty miserable during the day. Now I'm going to try 100 am and 200 pm, to see how it goes.
it takes a few months for Plaquenil to work for you but believe me it does help a bit because when i went off it my joint pain was really bad i still get joint pain on it but not as bad. I had tummy trouble at first as i do with a lot of new medication. I take 2 every morning but they have to be taken after food
If you haven’t already, make sure you eat something with it.
I had had the same problem it causes gerd take Prilosec
Take Prilosec and take both in the am after breakfast
I couldn't take a half a pill a day when I first started. My rheumy put me on nexium and told me to start with the smallest amount of the pill I could handle, which at the time was 1/8th! Then, slowly add until I am up to regular dosage. It took me a month to ramp up to a regular dose then I was able to stop the nexium. Now, I have been on it for 3 years with no stomach issues. I can take it on an empty stomach! ;) Good luck!
i cant take it at all,tried 3 or 4 times and every time i had gastinal bleeding,had colonauscopy and imy gasteralist said no more,so i have not taken it in over 2 yrs and have not had that problem ever again.
When I started it, had terrible stomach ache, diarrhea etc. Now I am used to the drug. But I can’t take it without any antacid.
I can’t imagine to skip it even for a day however, since skipping a dose means my pain skyrocks. Hope this answers your question.
Stay strong.
I’m now realizing maybe that’s where some of my digestive issues stemmed. However it seems to have gotten better. I’ve been prescribed this medication for a year or more. My surgeon begged me not to discontinue in the beginning.
This happeneed to be early on…my rheummy gave me Dexilant. You take it in the morning and your tummy is good to go for the day.
You might also want to get tested for candida…it lives in your gut and will cause chronic stomach issues. I speak from lots of experience! Lol.
I’ve been on plaquenil for 10 months with severe stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea…until recently. I had heard that relafen (my anti inflammatory) may cause stomach issues, and I had also heard that plaquenil could make you lactose intolerant. I was so desperate that I quit taking the relafen and I’ve stopped ALL dairy for the last two weeks. Almost all of my stomach issues are relieved and I feel soooo much better! Not sure if it was the dairy or the relafen, but I will reintroduce one or the other to find out. For now I’m just enjoying my normal stomach after 10 months of digestive hell!!
Good luck to you, hope you get it all figured out!
Plaquenil made me so tired I could barely move- which was part of the problem. Are you esting when you take the plaquenil? That should help a lot. Also you should eat with an ansaid like relafen. But that happened to me with celebrex, and he put me on a different one, which has been okay ever since.
I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I have had no noticeable side effects. Then again I don’t think it has helped much either.
The joint pain probably isn’t related. It takes the plaquenil anywhere from 1-3 months to really start working so it would also take a while to stop working. My daughter was actually able to go off of her plaquenil (slowly) and her Dr told her to be very careful. He said people think they are ok but then 3 months later they have a bad flare. She wasn’t one of them and has stayed in “remission”. Best of luck to you. Here is a good reference for plaquenil;
http://www.brighamandwomens.org/Departments_and_Services/medicine/services/rheumatology/lupus/factsheet/LUPUS_HYDRO.pdf
Hi
I was on 3 plaquenil a day til I got High Blood pressure and my rheumy dropped me down to 2 daily. I had constant diarrhea until my gastro dr put me on VSL3., a probiotic. It is a MIRACLE drug as far as I'm concerned. I have not had diarrhea since and thats over a year ago. If I had to decided between food and Vsl3 I would choose the VSL3.
Maybe a probiotic would help you.
Cindy
Me again. You know that while on plaquenil you need to keep a close watch on you blood pressure, and also to see an opthamologist regularly, not an optician or optomotrist.
Thanks guys, so far at 300 mg of plaquenil my diarrhea has resolved. Joints are better but not as good as at 400. I'm going to keep at 300 a while and see how I do over time. Fingers crossed!