she had me try a 2 wk course of prednisone not a dose .

I have been on Plaquenil two times, a year for each. It did nothing for me. But we are all different. For you, if it does not work, after 6 months, ask to go on methotrexate. But maybe it will work for you!

As for prednisone, it only treats symptoms, not the disease. So while you may feel a million times better, the joints can be deforming underneath. And what is especially bad, is if you feel good, you may overdo things, and make the joints worse. So the goal is always to treat the disease, not the symptoms, which is hopefully what Plaquenil will do for you.

As for the Parkinson's, I suppose it responds to the anti-inflammatory properties of prednisone, too! Not totally sure about the mechanism of Parkinson's, but I will say be careful of Miraplex, it can leak into the top of the brain stem and cause bipolar like symptoms. Not in most people, but just something for you to monitor. I had a friend who went through that with her Parkinson's.

Also, Plaquenil can take a long time to work - maybe up to 6 months. But if it doesn't work after that time, it really is time to move onto a new medication. There are so many drugs to treat RA these days, and hitting the disease hard at the outset is the new protocol for RA treatment, so the disease does not become as severe. I did not have that kind of treatment 20 years ago, and I am ultra severe, now.

Welcome to the group, but not to RA!

that's nice your rheumatologist gave you a bridge until your dmard does its thing.

I am happy for you.

since you asked for opinions: at high doses it ameliorates my RA while opening up my lungs during annual pneumonias. I take pred for my lungs when I have pneumonia. the side extra 2 for 1 special effect is the dissipating of RA symptoms. When I taper and finish I rebound (ra wise - by the time I taper my lungs are better) - I rebound RA wise to a place that wasn't as good as where I started.

I do not like it because off the emotional and physical roller coaster associated, with this. Some folks talk about some high dose pred re-setting their inflammation and so forth. How come I don't get that? we are all different.

in addition while curing pneumonias I can never sleep normally no matter if I take pred dose appropriately in AM, heart racing and usual other complaints.

that being said there are a whole LOT of folks I have seen on this board, over the years that take what they term minuscule daily maintenance doses of pred and can't do without it. It is in their tool kit semi permanently. Folks are ALL over the place on this one. It' s between you and your rheumatologist. no passes required from daily strength (laughing).

One thing that makes me smile - we used to have WICKED lively discussions on here years ago between the "natural" folks and the pharma folks. I used to belly laugh when the natural folks would talk about how they don't take any meds BUT pred. Pred has just as many medication consequences as all the decisions we make biologics or dmards long term or medium term.

what is your dose or the trajectory of your taper?

for you to be in the cure feeling you either have to have never taken Pred I would guess or be taking a high hit. feels good huh? enjoy.

depot

Plaquenil was life-changing for me. I went from barely able to brush my own hair or wipe my own tush, to functioning like a relatively normal human being. But it took something like 6 months before I felt any different at all, and a whole year for full effects. I should mention, my diagnosis is undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy, not "true RA."

Prednisone is a blessing and a curse, as others have described above; be careful and communicate with your doc!

Hi, Chris. Plaquenil seems to be the 'starter' targeted drug for RA; a common thread here is that most of us went on that first before moving on to other meds. Please keep in mind that if someone is diagnosed with RA and Plaquenil is effective, they probably aren't hanging around an online support group. They've probably gone back to their regular lives. Those of us who post here aren't necessarily a representative group. Plaquenil is incredibly effective for a lot of people. I hope you're one of them!

Katie, I am one of those people, lol. I joined this board when I was first diagnosed four years ago. Plaquenil has worked very well for me, and I haven't been around the board much since then. The doctor told me there were two drugs to start with; one took longer to kick in but had fewer side effects, the second worked faster but had more side affects. I chose the first, and it was Plaquenil (the other was methotrexate). At one point he had me drop to one pill a day, but the pain started coming back so I went back to two. The only pain I've had since was while driving through the desert in Arizona (came on for a few days) and then recently this winter with all the rain. Still, that's been manageable with ibuprofen.

yeah megan and willferg. Happy for you both.

LOVED katie's reply. everyone is welcome here no matter their level of impairment from RA, and whatever their own personal treatment plan is. there is no one size fits all for this support group.

as important as it is for those of us that have been on multiple biologics over decade(s) and so forth to hear our truth reflected, it is also important for those with milder RA that has been treated with dmards only to have a voice

the many voices thing is what we used to have. maybe it's coming back. I hope so.

depot

Willferg, it's great to hear a success story! that's fantastic!