Plaquenil and Secondary Raynaud's

December 3, 2006

I am still undiagnosed but labs look like lupus and/or sclero.

Raynauds is very problematic for me. About 3 months ago my rheumi

started me on Plaquel saying it could help with the Raynauds also.

After only a couple weeks it looked like some relief. A couple weeks

ago I started having bouts of diarrhea type problems. I would have

about a 15 second warning and often got " almost " to the bathroom. In

a flash what a mess.

We run a business out of our house. Once I was alone and then

suddenly again I didn't quiet make it. I put a " back soon " sign on

the door and locked it. Cleaned the bathroom, took a shower and

fresh clothes. Was I ever glad I was home. But things could have

been worse had there been customers or even had I been on the phone.

I am afraid to go out.

After the last episode I started looking at all the handful of

medication I take, checked each out and started dropping them one by

one until my blood pressure, diabetic and Plaquenil was left. I sure

found why I am taking each one when it was no longer in my system.

Since Plaquenil takes a while to build up I hesitated to tamper with

that. Web searching I found that that can be a side effect of

Plaquenil and the starting dose is twice daily then later(?) it may

need to be reduced to 1 per day or 1 every other day. I took one and

then no more for 24 hours. After which I could tell what it was

doing. My nose gets bright enough that I like Rudolph, could lead

Santa's sleigh. My hands were practically unusable due to the

Raynauds. I took one and the next morning my nose had lost it's

brightness and my hands were somewhat better. Now on 1 per day I

have not had another emergency.

I made a post similar to this one on another site and got a reply

that Plaquenil is not for Raynaud's. For this post in addition to the

side effects question I also ask about experience with Plaquenil and

Raynauds. Any comment, input, or whatever is appreciated.

Betty

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