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Plaquenil and Flares

larz77
larz77
I had good results with Plaquenil. It gave me 10 years of feeling more normal. I then hit a rough spot here and dealing with fatigue, sore joints and muscles. My Rheumy seems to think that Plaquenil should still be doing it's thing and what is going on with me isn't "Lupus". My tests, although off, never vary much or match the way I'm feeling. If I feel great they are off, if I feel bad, they are the same.

Has anyone had Plaquenil just stop working, or not be able to handle a flare? Does it start again? Can you up the dosage of Plaquenil (I'm at 200 2x a day). I think they changed the formulation about the time things changed for me, so I wonder if that could have made a difference.

Just trying to figure it out...
AnnNY
AnnNY
There are a lot of people on plaquenil plus something else. I wouldn't want to up my dosage of plaquenil, especially if you have been taking it for 10 years, because you would be increasing your risk for eye damage. You might want to ask your rheumy if you could try a short course of prednisone or a low dose of prednisone and see if you feel better.
MButterfly
MButterfly
FYI: There's been a "problem" with plaquenil production in which there's not an active ingredient and/or not a "level" amount of active ingredient. The main problem is because of a large producer in India. Basically, they didn't have ANY active ingredient in them, but there's been issues with other producers as well. Not all, but many.

Several people had to go with compounded plaquenil made here in the USA to avoid the flares that comes with inactive medication.

I would suspect that and try to address it before adding anything else to your regimine. It's quite a common problem as of late.