drug mix danger

[brownyoncedino]

Been on Indometacin, salphaselazin and omneprazole ( excuse spelling) for a 18 months now and consultant has just put me on methotrexate as no real pain relief with current mix. Confused over whether I should continue with just Metho and ditch the rest or what? Got cough cannot shift, had chest X-Ray, all OK? And radioactive dye bone scan which proved inconclusive. All blood tests prove negative, Liver OK buy only just - they scratching head as to what my chronic unstoppable pain in wrists and hands is or what to do to ease the pain? Steroid injections did nothing. All seemed to start 4 years ago when grapefruit size growth on ovary and another in womb size of 16 week pregnancy required total hysterectomy then 2 years ago a bad tooth infection caused pancreas to pack up and become insulin dependent at 53 years young, feel like I'm falling apart with medics clueless other than to try some other drug to see what that might do!

[Hidden]

I cannot comment regarding the other drugs, but when I was Omeprazole, I had an horrendous cough, it clear after stopping taking the Omeprazole. The weight gain while on it was surprising, now I am losing weight. Omeprazole stops the production of acid and suppress the production of digestive acids also slows down digestion (as it was explained to me) this caused the constipation I was experiencing now have the reflux problem under control (went holistic), and then they found out I was gluten intolerant and I have OA not RA. Might I suggest you speak to your GP or Rhuemy about the Omeprazole, there are other things you can try. The other silly thing suggested was increasing the amount of water I drink it has made a massive difference to me. Yoghurt in my case reduces the reflux and helps massively with digestion.

I know we are not give medical advice here, but am just mentioning two of the tings that helped me with the reflux,

[brownyoncedino]

Hi and many thanks for sharing that, I intend to speak to my consultant today, she has never been convinced I have RA as the original mri on my wrists and thumbs showed severe joint wear in both of the complex joints in my thumbs? Then the pain started to move around my body to almost every other major joint so she feels I do have RA, did have severe psoriasis over my entire body which slowly cleared completely which they can only put down to the Salpheselazine but unheard of medically?

[helixhelix in reply to brownyoncedino]

But they don't think you have psioratic arthritis?

[helixhelix]

As fidgets mum has said we're not doctors so can't give you specific advice about what to do. However it might help to think about these drugs in terms of what type of drugs they are/what they do...

So the indomethacin is an anti-inflammatory so it's purpose is to help damp down the inflammation and help a bit with pain while the other drugs are getting the disease under control. I used to take them daily, and now I'm controlled I don't need to. There are lots of different ones and often people find that one works better for them that the others. Usually it's best to talk to your GP about pain controls to-inflammmatories, but sound like you need something at the moment.

The omepradazole helps protect your stomach from the other drugs. Again there are lots of different ones so could be worth talking to GP about whether to try something else if you don't think it suits you.

The sulphasalazine and the methotrexate are the two drugs that are trying to do something to actually control the disease. Often you take both of them - I do plus a third one, so lots of pills but they work for me. You need to find out from your rheumy whether the MTX was supposed to replace the sulpha and be in addition as this can be different for each person depending on their medical history. Or you could ask your GP for a copy of the consultants letter which should explain if it's difficult to get through to your rheumy.

Hope this helps. MTX has been great for me so hope it works the same miracle for you.

[sheltielife]

I have heard a lot of people having problems with Omeprazole the other one to try if your doctor agrees is Ranitidine. It too protects your stomach. Or even Gaviscon Advanced would stop any reflux. I can't comment on the other drugs.

[jell]

since I stopped taking omeprazole I have stopped having the problems that caused me to take it in first place!

(after taking them, symptoms, pains and reflux got worse and GP just kept increasing dose)