We've all seen the TV shows and the news stories about bipolar or schizophrenic people going off their meds because they think they don't need them anymore. There are always serious consequences for the people, and those around them. I always wondered about why people would think they would suddenly be cured and don't need the medication anymore.
Come to find out, I fell into that category, much to my surprise. Let me preface this by saying I in no way thought I was cured, and what I did was with my doctor's approval.
It all started when I caught a cold...a month ago. Lucky me, I'm on Plaquenil, it's an immune suppressor. With my RA my body thinks my own tissue is a foriegn body and needs to attack it. The Plaquenil help me by shutting down my immune system somewhat. The problem with that is I pick up little colds all the damn time. Well this one went on and on and on... I tried all of usual tricks, nothing would shake it loose. I finally called my rheumy (my rheumatologist) and he told me to stop taking the Plaquenil for a week. Happy Happy Joy Joy! I had been bitching about that drug for the last couple of month. It was making me sick, it wasn't doing anything for me, the pills make me feel funny...the list goes on. (I must interject here that my husband is a saint and listens to my complaints, gets me a glass of wine, and cuddles me in close. Never once telling me to quit bitching.)
Two days after I quit taking the Plaquenil I started to feel the cold loosing it's grip on me. The day after that I was definitely on the mend, my nose was clearing up, my cough was subsiding, all in all good things.
Then I noticed something else...things were really starting to hurt again. My wrists were on fire, my ankles were not good...uh-oh. When my RA gets bad I've noticed it triggers a Fibro flare so then everything else started hurting. So while the cold was leaving, everything else was coming back.
It's amazing what the space of a couple of months will make you forget, like pain, swelling, general malaise. :::sigh::: Turns out the pills I thought were just a pain in my ass were actually the bubble gum holding me together!! Somehow I forgot how bad it was, and thought I really didn't need those little pills. I became, to a minor degree, one of those people on the TV shows and the news...thinking I knew better than the doctor.
Well, I learned my lesson! The week was up last night and I happily took my pills and will be able to report to my doctor next week on how wonderful they are!
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I've been guilty of that, too. I used to take a medication that I called "my poison". I wished and wished that the condition would be all gone if I stopped the meds... but no.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that eventually they invented a new med for this uncommon condition, with many fewer side effects. I hope they do that for you, too!
Oddly, my symptoms went away after a few years on the new meds! Go figure. (The blood test shows the condition, but the symptoms are gone.) Again, go figure!