I have age related mac and my DR is not very happy with me taking Prequenill.
The fatigue is the worst past of all this for me. What do others take for the fatigue? Thanks.
So far my doctor has just given me Plaquinel. I have been on it for 6 months with no improvement. Right now I have been on prednisone due to some other complications, and that makes me hyper. So far that is the only thing that has helped.
I swear by vitamin B complex. I suffer from extreme bouts of fatigue along with international lung disease and occasional animia with an iron deficiency so im always wiped out 
b vitamins are a great natural way to energize and won’t make you crash like caffeine can. . It’s also water soluble so you don’t necessarilyneed food on your stomach to digest it unlike some other vitamins 
Lupus causes fatigue, low grade fevers caused by lupus cause fatigue, I get fatigue as a side effect of many lupus meds. Anemia causes fatigue, too.sun exposure causes it. AAPrednisone helps my fatigue, but we can’t really use it for energy, it’s got too many long term side effects. Plaquenil eventually restores some energy. But if you ask, I bet most people with lupus would list fatigue as one of their major problems. My doc had me on narcolepsy meds for a while, but I couldn’t sleep and got panic attacks, really not worth it. I’m off plaquenil because of my eyes. Sometimes you just get better, which is great! Hope that happens, a lupus free time, for you,
Be sure to have your vitamin D checked. If you are deficient which if you read up on it, most Lupus patients are, it will cause fatigue also.
Naps! Seriously, the fatigue associated with Lupus is for me, the most debilitating symptom. I now routinely sleep 12-14 hours a day, and have slept as much as 18 hours. Even the extended sleep doesn't help the fatigue.
What I do notice is that when I'm not in a flare, I am less fatigued, but still have no stamina. I've had to change my life and learn what my limits are.
But like everyone above says, make sure your doctor has checked for anemia, Vitamin B-12 level, Vitamin D level, thyroid - all the basics. I do take multi-vitamins as well as supplements for B vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, calcium and magnesium. I won't take an iron supplement unless my lab results indicate a specific iron-deficiency anemia. Doctors tend to initially call any anemia iron-deficiency because its the most common.
Jamie Lyn said:
Be sure to have your vitamin D checked. If you are deficient which if you read up on it, most Lupus patients are, it will cause fatigue also.
Thanks for all the ideas. I agree that the fatigue is the worst part for me also. Have too much to do = even though I am retired.
I have never been able to sleep during the day and usually am back up after about 15 minutes of thinking I will take a nap.
Just had blood work done today....should know results by Monday - Vit D was one of the test along with thyroid. A cup of coffee mid afternoon also seems to help. Thanks.
I have really bad fatigue too. The chloraquine helps, but I am in a flare and even the prednisone is not giving me any energy right now. Would love to have some energy!
The thing with the fatigue and lack of stamina is: that is the essence of lupus. Everyone has a set of other symptoms, but there is always the fatigue. Unless you are in a long remission period, and I haven’t had one of those for years now. I used to. Now, I eat breakfast and fall asleep again. Eat lunch and fall asleep. At 2 in the morning, I can’t sleep because I slept all day. That’s not every day, just almost every day. And years ago, I would emerge from this and be well for a 6 month period, or even longer. But even then, I tired more easily than before. Nikki said naps. But it’s falling asleep from the exhausting of feeding my cats and eating breakfast with its complement of meds wears me out, along with the sleepy side effect of a med I’m on. I had a bad kidney blood result from last week, yesterday + got it retested yesterday after seeing the doctor. Result today was my regular not great but okay. That was scary. He took me off four meds and cut down another, though. Curious to see how that goes.
On vitamin D- it does seem common in lupus. I think it’s all the sunscreen, staying out of the sun we do, but maybe not. Testing for anemia is a part of the CBC, they cover that stuff every time you do blood work, it’s a low red blood cell count. I think testing for vitamins is pretty routine, too- along with potassium and sodium, on both of which I run low.
I was just recently feeling the same way about the fatigue. I feel like I can’t do anything anymore. I’m always so tired. And can fall asleep basically any time during the day but at night I need medication to help me sleep. I feel that I am not resting enough at night and that might be why I am always so tired but I don’t know. I wish there were answers to this because I feel like the fatigue is ruining my life. I don’t want to spend my days in bed and nights frustrated.