Welcome, nne!

[Guest guest]

Welcome, nne!

Sorry that you have had so many years of suffering and wondering exactly

what is going on with your body. Do you still have the fibromyalgia

diagnosis?

You certainly have many of the symptoms and lab results that would point to

RA, but the " Plaquenil test " your physician is using to attempt to confirm

the diagnosis sounds rather unconventional. Is he considering any other

diagnoses for you?

Antimalarials have been used successfully over the years to treat both

rheumatoid arthritis and lupus patients, among suffers of various other

rheumatic diseases. Chloroquine is usually more effective than Plaquenil,

but the more potent chloroquine also has a stronger association with retinal

toxicity.

From s Hopkins in a discussion of antimalarials as agents used to treat

rheumatoid arthritis:

" Chloroquine is no longer recommended because of its greater ocular

toxicity. "

Source:

http://www.hopkins-arthritis.com/rheumatoid/rheum_treat.html

Here are some more links to information on antimalarials that may be of

interest to you:

http://pharminfo.com/pubs/ranews/ranews1_64.html

http://www.findarticles.com/m0833/n9105_v351/20477416/p1/article.jhtml

----- Original Message -----

From: <mridnurse@...>

< egroups>

Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2001 10:00 AM

Subject: [ ] New to Group

> Hi everyone,

>

> I wanted to introduce myself. I was recently diagnosed with RA (although

I'm

> sure I have had it for a while). In 1992 I was diagnosed with

fibromyalgia.

> I had a positive RA back then, but was told it was a false positive. I

would

> have occasional severe bouts of not being able to walk well, but they

chalked

> it all up to the fibro. The last couple of years I can not go a day

without

> an NSAID. I then went on Vioxx about a year ago. This past fall I read

up

> more on RA and found that they were starting to treat it more agressively

> than before. I had just moved and had pneumonia. I wasn't getting any

> better with the fatigue and the morning stiffness, hip pain, feet, wrists,

> etc. was not going away. I went to my doctor and asked for blood work

again

> for RA. Well, my RA factor was 94 units with normal being <40 and I had a

> high white blood count. Sed rate was normal. He sent me to a

> rheumatologist. My C-reactive protein is at 15 with normal 0 to 5. He

> started me on Plaquenil as a test to see if it worked, and if it did, he

> would definitely diagnose me with RA. Well, after 4 weeks of this, I felt

> better, but had an allergic reaction to it! Now he has me on Chloroquine,

> which I have had no trouble taking, but it doesn't seem to be working as

> well.

>

> Is anyone here on chloroquine, or has been on it? How is it working for

you?

>

> nne