Question about a particular side effect of Plaquenil...

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ChelleSmiles - 25 Jan 2007 19:55 GMT

I've been on plaquenil for 3 weeks. I take it with my lunch every
day, so I'm eating it with a full meal. The problem is the horrible
digestive problems it's been giving me. Every day I am fine until
about 1 hour after I take the Plaquenil with lunch, and then I spend
the rest of the afternoon (at work or confined to my house on the
weekends) with horrible digestive gurgling that keeps me running to the
bathroom with *you know what*!

My question is how many of you have this problem or have you had it
diminish after being on plaquenil for an extended period of time?

I'm taking 200mg, and quite honestly, it's extremely disruptive to my
life...God forbid I have an afternoon meeting and I have to leave 3-4
times in an hour to get to the bathroom (besides the fact that it's
horribly embarrassing to deal with this in my office bathroom)...and on
the weekend days I can't really go out of the house all afternoon until
this side effect dies down.

Oy! I need some sort of hope because while my illness has horrible
symptoms, I don't know if I can live the rest of my life with 4 hours
of every day devoted to running to the bathroom. Also, I'm concernd
about retaining nutrients and getting dehydrated.

Please tell me this will die down eventually?

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Sherry - 25 Jan 2007 21:23 GMT

Why don't you try taking the Plaquenil with your dinner? I had problems
with having to go to the bathroom, like you describe, prior to my starting
the plaquenil....mine seemed to be from eating anything that had any amount
of fat.

Hope someone has a better answer for you.

Hugs,
Sherry

> I've been on plaquenil for 3 weeks. I take it with my lunch every
> day, so I'm eating it with a full meal. The problem is the horrible
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> Please tell me this will die down eventually?

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William R Thompson - 25 Jan 2007 21:51 GMT

> then I spend
> the rest of the afternoon (at work or confined to my house on the
> weekends) with horrible digestive gurgling that keeps me running to the
> bathroom with *you know what*!

Oh, yeah--the polite term is "irritable bowel syndrome."

> Oy! I need some sort of hope because while my illness has horrible
> symptoms, I don't know if I can live the rest of my life with 4 hours
> of every day devoted to running to the bathroom. Also, I'm concernd
> about retaining nutrients and getting dehydrated.

I don't know about Plaquenil, but when/if the internal
excitement dies down, Gatorade will help with the
wrung-out feeling, and Ensure will help with the loss
of nutrients. Plus lots of chocolate, which is my
cure for just about everything.

--Bill Thompson

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