Enter Plaquenil

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It is 2:40 am as I begin this post, on the first morning after I began taking Plaquenil for my RA. I had the final blood test and the pre-Plaquenil eye-exam last week. The prescription was called in on Thursday and I picked it up late Thursday night. I decided to hold off on taking the first dose until after work on Friday because I didn't want to be sick on the job. Boy, am I glad I held off.

About thirty minutes after I took the first dose, which is 300 mg daily, I started to feel a bit itchy. Then a lot itchy. All over. I monitored myself but no rash developed and I didn't have any difficulty breathing or swelling. After another thirty minutes the itching went away. Then the queasiness started. By then it was late, and I was tired, so I decided to go to bed. I went to sleep pretty quickly.

And then I woke up. Stomach cramps. Nausea. Just a general icky feeling all over. I stayed in bed for a while and then gave up and got up. Worked on my taxes. Drank some water. Tried not to throw up. Failed. Drank some more water. Then it occurred to me that I could chronicle the mind-numbing dullness that has become my life - taking meds, waiting to get sick (or not, as the case may be), hoping that something will help me heal.

So here I am. Still queasy, but keeping the water down, and not in imminent danger of losing it. Tired, but not able to sleep. New steps on the journey have just started. It's 3 am - isn't it always, during the long, dark night of the soul?


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