Sulfasalazine and nausea

Jo90

Hi all
I am now into week 5 of taking this (in addition to Hydroxy) and have almost had a gutful of feeling queasy and burping like a navvy ! Is it just me ?
I always take my meds (like a good girl) with or after meals to try to moderate any gut problems, but am getting pretty sick (see all the subtle gags littering this ?!) of the nausea. (Sorry if anyone is eating !!)

I briefly mentioned it to the nurse taking my bloods tonight and she mentioned that if it continues, I can contact the rheumy team and they can prescribe something to help with this side-effect.

Thanks for any guidance.
Jo
x

skezier

Hi Jo,

I was on sulfa for about a year and like you was constantly feeling sick or was sick. I got some anti-emetics and they helped but I also had a major reaction to the sulfa so went on to the mtx and waht do you know spent 3 years feeling or being sick.

Anti emetics can seriously help though and might be worth asking about? I had some called metoclopride and them something being with O as well as stemitil and cyclazine (all that lot now help with the oxy;s :roll: ) so there are a lot of things they can do to help.

With luck your sickness will wear off and more importantly the sulfa will really help you. hang in there and ask for an anti-emetic as feeling or being sick is so unpleasant eh? Cris x

Oh Jo it might also be worth asking for a pump inhibitor like lanzoprozol (I really don't rate omoprozole x

Jo90

Hi Cris

Thanks for this - it sometimes helps to know that someone else has struggled similarly and that I'm not imagining it !
Good to hear that there are a number of other meds that can help here. I will look out for those named meds if I end up having to call out to the team for help. It certainly doesn't help my mood when I keep feeling grotty like this - and it's still early days for the sulfa to really kick in and help with the arthur.

Interesting you mention a specific pump inhibitor - I am on Omeprazole, wasn't aware there was a difference between this and Lanso - I will add this to my list of 'demands' of the rheumy team :-)

Thanks

Jo
x

stickywicket

Jo90 wrote:

Interesting you mention a specific pump inhibitor - I am on Omeprazole, wasn't aware there was a difference between this and Lanso

I used to take lansop but, when it needed increasing, it was changed to omep because 40 mgs omep is OK to take, I was told, but not 60 mgs lansop (although I believe Tillytop is now taking that). It's working well for me.

skezier

Hi Jo,

Tis early days but I so remember the feeling and how bad it was so its possibly a good idea to get an anti-emetic for a bit and hopefully you will be able to come off it after a while. I never did with the sulfa of the mtx, or the oxy's come to that

I just throw up easily now a days

Back to the sulfa it also gave me bad headaches but I did react to it so that might be why?

The fact it is 'only' five weeks might mean your still upping the dose? Rumo's have different ways of prescribing it sio it will depend on yours as to if you are or not.

The omoprozole.... I can only speak as I found and my stomach and oesophagus were not protected and I now have big trouble with it all though they have me on nexuim now.

They are different drugs but from the same family of drugs just slightly different. I found the cheaper the omop got the less effective it was and by the end the capsule its self was doing damage.... Doc's will sometimes say that both drugs do the same thing but... well I found the lanzop much better and the nexium 100% better but they wont put you on that till there are real problems it seems cus its expensive.

The heavy feeling you are getting is what makes me think it might be better to say the omop isn;t doing the job so could you try the lanzop? Funnily enough in the days before generic the omop's seemed much better but the cheaper they got... well Jo other fol;k might find different but I just found I had ulcers on them and they caused a lot of pain by the time they got to the cheaper boxes.....

You hang in there and with luck you will find it will stabilise and you will feel a lot better and what ever the sulfa did to me ... they also did work! Fingers crossed for you. Cris x

Jo90

Thanks SW and Cris.
I was on an increasing dose of the sulfa, but got up to full dose in week 4 - although, I was feeling so queasy I dropped it back the odd day. Fortunately I haven't been actually sick, but am sat with my team stifling awful burps and a general billious feeling. I must be lousy to sit near at work !! Cris - poor you having to tolerate that long of actually being sick - that must have been rotten, especially added on to the joy of arthur :-(

Useful information here - it helps me a lot knowing that there are options - unfortunately some of this has come at others' experience of unpleasant side-effects.

Many thanks for the input :-)
Jo
x

tillytop

Hello Jo

I'm really sorry you are struggling.

It took me a good while to get used to the Sulph - I had very bad headaches and permanent nausea - but after a few weeks at full dose my insides gave up protesting and I took it for about 10 years after that with no problems at all. So you may find that, if you can "hang in there" a bit longer, the unpleasant side effects will disappear. I do hope so but, if not, there are lots of other DMARDS out there if turns out that Sulph is not right for you.

Hope things improve for you very soon - and well done for sticking with it thus far - I know how tempting it is to give up when the side effects are so horrible.

Thinking of you.

Tillyxxx

PS: Re the earlier post on my Lanzoprazole dose - Sticky is right, I am taking 60mg Lanzo at the moment, but my understanding is that I can only take that dose until my stomach ulcer heals. Then it's back to a lower dose.

kat

Hi,

I don't know if its just me but everytime I get a new prescription of sulfasalazine the bottle always smells strongly like paint. I started feeling sick all the time and one day when I opened a new bottle It clicked it must be that, so I emptied the tabs into an plastic cup and have not felt sick since.

Hope this might help.

Kat x

Jo90

Hi Tilly and Kat

Thanks for the support and suggestions. I am trying really hard to persevere and will stick with it a bit longer (but may ring the team for some anti-sickies) !
Interesting tip for the smell from the bottle - I am prepared to try anything to stop feeling like this. I can't seem to get a permanent unpleasant taste out of my mouth - lord knows, it's even put me off looking forward to a glass of wine or two - so it must be serious !

Jo
x