just a bit of info for those that may not have heard about these side
effects:

susie has been having increased problems with knees (osteo) and as a
result of her gait being off, started to have foot problems also. her
doc decided  it was time to go on a scheduled anti-infla. instead of
just 'whenever', and the decision was to go  with mobic (meloxicam) as
an nsaid - started at 7.5, went up to 15 after a couple weeks of so-so
effect.

and that was when the problems started - after roughly 4 days at the
higher dosage, she started to complain of puritis - itching with no
redness or scaling - then another 2 days, and broke out in hives (almost
poison ivy look) all up and down legs and arms...second day and it was
getting worse by the hour.

got her to the doc and off the mobic - presc. low dose pred to combat
the allergic like rash -

she had taken it (pred) the next morning,  just before going to work -
and double whammy - called me as soon as she got there with the first
sym. showing in about 2 hours.

- she turns out to be allergic to the pred. (she had never had any
cortisteroids before, so no warning)

red face, tight chest, hyper fluttering, eye twitch, vertigo - you name
it.

out of the frying pan into the fire.

got her back to the doc asap.

the past 3-4 days have been a slow come down of sym - not much else to
do but let the body void it out. there seems to be a considerable
heightened sensitivity to sunlight also (time will tell if that
continues)

even though she has no history of problems with any other nsaid, this
'patient' warning applies to her, and maybe some others, so fyi:

"As with other NSAIDs, anaphylactoid reactions have occurred in patients
without known prior exposure to MOBIC."

and then to have the pred. ratchet it up even higher!

for you ladies: her doc did a fair amount of research and it turns out
that there is info/data on women with hormonal imbalance (read
menopause) having this reaction to both the mobic and to pred. but it's
not in the 'standard' patient info sheet. a small percent - but
trackable.

she was lucky - feels terrible, but getting better. and we still need a
workable nsaid for the future.

be well

paul