Medication recommendations after failing hydroxycloroquine?
Medications tend to impact everyone differently, by my world has been absolutely rocked by hydroxycloroquine. (This has also happened temporarily from prednisone too 🤪 but that healed and I tried plaquenil only to experience this again, but worse)
It destroyed my GI. I dropped weight so fast (12% of my body weight in a few months), developed esophagitis and gastritis, experienced chronic excruciating pain from my stomach and esophagus. Even high doses of PPI and sucralfate could not manage the pain from the reflux to my esophagus.
My rheumatologist caught this, the side effects of this severity was rare. But it’s my reality. So currently I’m unmedicated and having labs watched closely..
I’m too afraid to try any more meds, she recommended leflunomide (ARAVA) soon and the side effects look worse than hydroxycloroquine. How could this be any better?
I felt destroyed, like I was dying (starving, dehydrated, unable to get out of bed from the GI complications at times)
My stomach is already improving since coming off the med and sticking to an extraordinarily strict diet under the watch of a gastroenterologist (still on a ton of stomach meds too).
I still need to be examined for gastroparesis but now that I’m improving I feel hopeful that this was a side effect from the hydroxycloroquine…
I’m so exhausted. What really sucks is how much the med helped. It damn near put my occipital neuralgia nerve pain/ chronic migraine in remission.
Has anyone else ever experienced this? What meds could possibly help put this disease at bay without completely obliterating my stomach 😭
I’m also open to holistic options.