Although prednisone has its own side effects it will probably give you more relief than pain meds. See if you can get a seven day pack from GP to make it to an apt with rheumy.

Also see if naproxen helps any.

Good luck and god bless

Hi Grandpa2one,
You are so right about Plaquenil and eyesight. It can damage the retina. My Rheumy would not write a script for Plaquenil until I checked with my opthamologist to have his OK. That was because I had fast developing cataracts. In general, when on Plaquenil, it is advised to have eye check-ups every six months.
I had to stop Plaquenil because it was sending me spiralling into depression.
Can you call your family doctor and ask him/her to prescribe stronger pain tablets, or even sleeping pills sothat you can, at least get some decent sleep until you see your Rheumy next month?
I could do that "downunder" but not sure of protocol in US.
Hope you can get some relief

I'm so sorry to hear you are suffering. : (

I'm with 2sciscrazed on getting a prednisone pack, stat! Those things turn down the inflammation FAST.

Also, Tramadol never did boo for me either. I could have been taking baby aspirin. I'd definitely explain to your doc that it's not effective for you and that you need other options.

I would definitely call today. Please don't suffer a moment longer than you have to! Sending you warm wishes for fast relief. Keep us posted please!

Why did you rheumy pull you of mtx and 2 other drugs?

Plaquenil helped me TONS. And my eye doctor told me that it doesn't have near the side effects on eyes as mtx does. Go figure.

But that is his account. But he has been in the business a long time and is very very thorough.

Plaquenil takes a while to be effective on most ppl even though it started working on me in about ten days.

Prednisone wld prob be better than pain medication. I do hope that u get some much needed relief soon... it isn't fun facing the holidays with pain and fatigue... in fact it seems to make it all so depressing.

I hope you are up making candy soon grandpa.... plz send some pure way.

What kind of candy do u make?

Plz let us know what solution u find. Much luv.

Just a note, Gramps

After last eye exam and I told eye doc that the RA meds weren't working very well, he suggested that I get back with my rheumy to find out what new meds she is or would consider before we chart a long term course of action for my surgeries. Eye doc said that some of the stuff we take is rather hard on the eyes - he said Plaquenil in particular for what me and my eyes are dealing with (may help others, but I'm a bit worried with the speed of this that is going on).

All the med is bad for something, no doubt, but if you are hurting today, then you need something today and hang tomorrow - I know what you are dealing with in that I'm doing the same thing - juggling meds and watching for reactions -

Hang in there - the little ones need the candy
Peace
Bluedogs2

I have learned not to read about a medicine prior because its side effects doesn't necessarily will affect me or my family member the same as what is said on paper..just a thought.Have you spoke to your dr of your concerns? Perhaps he can find another meds for you

The only side effect that's very concerning re plaquinil is that there is a remote chance of it (plaquinil) building up in the back of your eyes, very rare occurance. My opthamologist explained it like this-- after being on a high dose for a period of years there is a very small chance that it could cause a problem, in fact the chance is so small that experts used to recommend eye exam and dilation every 6 months but that was changed to only once a yr several yrs ago---as long as your eyes are dilated and examined by an opthamologist then IF that ever happened it would be caught and the drug discontinued--end of problem. Plaquinil is a very old drug, been on the market for many many yrs & is safe. It takes months to build up a therapeutic level in your blood stream, my advice is to fill the RX as instructed by your rheumy, have your eyes examined by your opthamologist regularly and give the drug a chance. You're in need of a FAST acting drug right now to provide relief, such as prednisone. Don't suffer needlessly!
Best wishes

plaqu took about 4 1/2 months to kick in for me. do get your eye exams as soon as you can to establish a base line measurement for you and have the follow up checks every six months. my eye doc was very familiar with it, he said it is a very very small group that will develop problems with retina. no probs for me, hope the same will be true for you. when i clean up my diet it took about two weeks for things to quit swelling and the all consuming pain to go away....that was before i even began the plaqu. the plaqu does help though, whenever i'm victim of cross contamination (must eat away from home lots) the plaqu keeps things from going into a full blown flare until my body can shed the poison i've injested.

over thanksgiving drove from se alabama to albuquerque and back....had a big container of almonds and ate the whole thing. the next week when i'm trying to figure out what the heck i've done i ran into a lady that used to be a biologist of some sort. i told her about my night shade stuff and began whining about "what did i do", she talked me through what i'd eaten the previous ten days and when i mentioned the almonds she said, "that's a night shade", "the shape of the inside of the flower gives it away"....dang

all that said to say that you obviously love baking/cooking, don't stop but be very wary of the ingredients and spice that you use. so many flower brands will contain elements of night shades. you could be hurting yourself without meaning to do so.

hope you get things figured out and i wish you a pain free Christmas!

I know exactly how you feel & what awful timing.
Darned if you do & darned if you don't.
My eyes are really acting up, yet I'm only on Enbrel.
I'm thinking Sjogren's.
Always something.
I do feel for you. Normally very excited & in the spirit. This year nothing. Awful timing for a flare.
I hope you get that candy made & the relief you so need & deserve. Take good care.
Sammy

So sorry for all the pain you are feeling.... hope it gets better really soon. Lots of great input here... so now you need to get it figured out and get that pain under control.... Then get to that baking and candy making because we are wanting our share :))) Well with that said... I really hope you get to feeling better very soon because Christmas isn't good unless we can do what we like for the holidays.

grandapa since the Metho didnt work out ..can you go ona biologic ?
meloxicam is a good as wll for inflamation and pain ...hope you feel better soon..
i couldnt take plaquienil ..had terrible vertigo from it and it did nothing ..and played tricks with my eyes ..it gae them a shade effect ..like the shade weer being pulled down on my eyes ..a scary sensation...i hope they help you ..stay strong .
Tami

Thanks for the feedback...I've taken two pain pills today and getting ready to take the third and try to go to bed. Pain eased a little but not as much as I wish it could have. Never made it calling the doctor today, he wouldn't have givien me anything over the phone anyway and my wife was out most of the day and there's no way I could have drove there.

I have some prednisone in the cabinet from when I was sick a few months ago. I think there's about 24 pills left. I'm wondering if I could just pop a couple of them to get me through a day or so?

Grandpa,

I'm terribly sorry you feel so bad. Certainly, you should make that call to your Rheumy pronto.

You have stated a couple of times that pain medication cannot be called in to your pharmacy. This isn't true as only Scheduled II medications: Percocet, Morphine, OxyContin, Demerol etc... are not allowed by law to be called in and must be presented to the pharmacy on a paper script.

This leaves an awful lot of medications that work better than Tramadol that could be called in.

Perhaps your Rheumy would be nice enough to call in a steroid taper as well as some pain medications.

Good Luck,
TheWino

sorry we both are in the same situation. i am in a flare too. but i am taking prednisone. it always helps me.

did you call your rheumy? pls do that. they will definitely help you.