SIDE EFFECTS

[Guest guest]

Hi, my name is and I am new to the support group. I have

suffered from RA for 3 and a half years now. Before being diagnosed

with RA I suffered from ME/CFS (chronic fatique syndrome) I also

suffered from fibromyalgia. May have had RA longer but had not been

diagnosed. I have been on predisolone, plaquenil and methotrexiate,

folic acid. Just about 6mths ago I had a severe reaction to my

medication at first they thought it was the methotrexiate, so took me

off it straight away. My liver was pickled (as the doctor pointed out

to me) My liver function test was supposed to be 34 but had gone up

to over 2000. It was still reacting while I was still on plaquenil

and I got terribly itchy, like I had fleas !!! I had to go off that

immediately as well. Thank goodness my liver function has finally

gone back to normal, but my RA and fibromyalgia has flared up badly as

I have only been on the predisolone.

I have had to make a number of trips to emergency as the pain has been

unbearably. I am now getting it in the front of my neck into my

shoulder cap, back of neck (feels like it is in my ears) and cannot

lift my right arm. I feel like I have no support for my neck when it

reacts. I have also had days when I cannot walk on my leg, one time I

passed out from the pain. And I consider myself to be a pretty strong

person when it comes to tolerating pain, but when it gets to this

stage it is just completely unbearable.

The Rhematologist are going to try me on sulfasalazine (not sure if I

am spelling it right) they need to moniture me closely to make sure

my liver function test is still ok after using it. They also want to

reduce my predislone right done, at the moment I am taking 15mg but

have been up to 25mg when I have been really bad. I would love to

hear from anyone who can give me thier story on how treatments have

helped them and is there anyone out there that has had severe

reactions to the drugs they have taking? I would appreciate any help

you can offer me. Thanks .