Hydroxycloroquine

silverbirch

I take one tablet a day and once a week I do a 15mg meths injection, lately I am feeling so very tired and my eyes don't feel like they are opened properly, I could fall asleep on a clothes- line, do you think I should take a break from the hydro.

Starburst

Fatigue is a very common symptom of inflammatory arthritis. It's never a good idea to stop treatment without medical advice and supervision. Perhaps speak to your rheum or rheum nurse?

stickywicket

Starburst is quite right. Please don't stop your meds without consultation. Why do you suspect the hydroxy anyway? Arthritis, meth and pain dullers can all make us feel very tired. I've not heard of hydroxy doing so. It doesn't with me.

silverbirch

Your both right of course I just suspect the hydroxy because my eyes feel half open , but I have got a cold so that's probably not helping.

dreamdaisy

I've not taken hydroxy but I think it falls into the category (as does meth) as an immuno-suppressant med; this means (as I am sure you know) that those of us who are immuno-suppressed don't produce symptoms until an infection is somewhat advanced. I was told by my hospital to stop the meth (and my other meds, I am on a triple therapy) at the first sign of a sore throat so I do. It makes sense, yes? How can one fight an infection whilst taking the suppressing meds? Rocket science it ain't. I hope you feel better soon. DD

bubbadog

I take 2 Hydroxycloroquine twice a day and Starburst and others agreeing it's part and parcel of having Arthritis and taking other meds including Hydro have side effects of fatigue! I'm as bad as you I can be reading or watching telly and I start to fall asleep and my OH just shouts 'wakey, wakey' at me!! :shock:

Starburst

silverbirch wrote:

Your both right of course I just suspect the hydroxy because my eyes feel half open , but I have got a cold so that's probably not helping.

How long have you been on it? It really didn't agree with me at all. so I eventually came off it. Is fatigue a normal part of your condition for you?

bubbadog

DD is right (she is the best person to listen to she's the brains of this out fit!! ) when you get any bug going about it knocks you out because your body has to try harder to fit out because of all ready having to deal with the Arthritis and meds. My G.P told me it takes twice as long as a healthy person to get over any bug or virus and she is right!!

Mat48

I'm not so sure. I restarted Hydroxy on it's own 7 weeks ago having been on it with MTX injections for a year (on MTX for 18 months) and came off it the first time because I was suffering from all sorts of things and my doctors preferred I drop the Hydroxy than the MTX. Since then I have dropped MTX and restarted Hydroxy 400mg (two tablets a day) and during my time off DMARDs (about four months in total) I learned that a lot of the symptoms I blamed the MTX and Hydroxy were in fact the result of systemic inflammation caused by my defective autoimmune responses.

But my eyes are really suffering at the moment and I'm totally exhausted, icy cold toes, hives and chronically dry eyes and some increase in stiffness and pain (tendonitis mostly) too. I think for me this is part winter, part my body's attempt to fight off infection because my sister and her kids were up and gave everyone except me a horrid cold. I don't seem to get viruses just now but my flares seem to correspond with everyone else coming down with stuff.

So perhaps the Hydroxichloraquine with 15mg MTX isn't quite enough to dampen your immune system at the moment. You are on quite a low (maintanence dose?) of the Hydroxy so I wouldn't have thought it would cause these problems but hey - it's a DMARD and we all respond differently :roll: I don't know how long you've been on it but it can take up to six months for it to make a real difference I'm told?