Welcome Robyn

[Guest guest]

Welcome Robyn,

Glad to have you but sorry you have the illness we all share. I took Placquinil

ok but I take Aralen now. Why don’t you have a non-steroid drug like Celebrex?

That really cuts the pain. I take both of those plus other things. I have

fibromyalgia, lupus, arthritis, osteoporosis, interstitial cystitis,

degenerative disk disease, TMJ dysfunction, cognitive dysfunction (lupus fog),

IBS, and probably something I forgot. I am 57. I am a cancer survivor and had

several seizures and a brain hemorrhage and I’m still kicken! I have

been disabled for over 7 years now. Lot’s

of us have several things wrong with us. I see your problem is Hep. C. I hope

you get a good combination of meds going. Most of us have to experiment for a

while to find the right combo.

From: jrtrobyn

Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 5:35

PM

To: LUPIES

Subject: Robyn here, new

member

Hi out there,I'm Robyn. I started having joint problems about 3

years ago-

just in my fingers. I'm 49 and have worked as a bartender

for almost

30 years. The pain in my fingers would be there after a

busy night

at work. I just figured it was from gripping the bottles

all night

long, probably age and maybe arthritis setting in. My

energy level

sure had dropped in the last couple of years. As of the

first of

this year I finally am covered by a decent health insurance

plan so I

went to a rheumitologist beginning of March. He ordered

bloodwork

done and then more bloodwork. Turns out I do have Lupus

and it was

flaring pretty bad too- joint pain in fingers, wrists,

elbows,

shoulders, extreme fatigue. I also have Cronic Hep C, so at

first the Dr

thought that the Hep C was causing the problems. It's a

tricky

situation treatmentwise and I'm waiting to see a hepitologist

in June.

Meanwhile my rheumitologist put me on Plaquinel, 200 mg 2x

daily. It

caused terrible intestinal cramps and the fun that goes

along with

that, I was basically housebound. I'm wondering if

anyone has

had those side effects form Plaquinel? I stopped taking

it until I

can see discuss this with my Dr. There must be other meds

that I can

take. I'm still have so much to learn. Thanks for

listening.

Robyn