Has anyone been prescribed Plaquenil?

if it wasn't expected to do anything why did they put you on it?

Wasn't it before tocilzumab?

yes, about a year before Actemra.

Ah... good questsion Ricky.  Here in Australia you can only get to some drugs if you've exhausted the first line of treatment and demonstrated that it "doesn't work".  In order for me to get to  I had to try Plaqenil first - to demonstrate it didn't work - even though my rhuemy knew it wouldn't! Rediculous but true.

Anhaga mentions that it was also prior to being put on Actemra (Tocilizumab) (not MTX, sorry got my drugs mixed up!). To get access to this drug, I first had to be 'reclassified' in the system has having RA, even though I don't have RA!!

Just ignore me Jean, I'm totally confused today! lol

It's the same in the US.

 

Yes.  The group input is very helpful

Congratulations!

👵🏼😍👶🏼

I'm a besotted Nana, welcome to the best club in the world! (I have #3 arriving in late August!)

Thank you

thank you :-).  And  roll on august!

Hehe - I'm about 15 years ahead. Wait until they're teenagers - whole new world 

Newborns are SO cute, teenagers less so. And then they learn to drive...

My 17 old grand-daughter now taking lessons....and yes what a worry, they are making their own decisions about career etc, first boyfriend.....such a different world  as well,(technology) to when ours were growing up.....

​A change of subject.....you must get sooooooo frustrated at the incompetent doctors/rheumies we are always posting on here I know I am....what on earth is going on.....where does it leave us patients??

After 8 years of forums and 5 years of my own pathetic GP I'm so used to it. But new depths are plumbed every month!

To be fair, sometimes they are right that it isn't PMR but what is really infuriating is when they just insinuate it's all in your mind. At least PMR doesn't kill, GCA is a bit different in that patients' sight is on the line but I'm a member of a lupus forum I acquire all sorts of knowledge that is useful) and there lives are on the line and some doctors are just abysmal in their patient handling skills.

My hairdresser has been diagnosed with Lupus about a year ago, just 30 years old .....she was very ill to start with, but with a huge concoction of drugs is running her business ok....she says after about an hour to get going in the morning she`s not too bad....she goes to the same Rheumatology dept as me, and sees a "professor"  she is pleased with him,.

 I have realised there are no MR`s there, the are Dr`s....so are they "consultants?....I have been asked by friends and family over the years, what consultant do you see......well I don`t........is this the problem....or are there consultant`s elsewhere, in other hospitals?....

?I think if when I go back in May, he told me it was in my mind.....I would find some superhuman strength from somewhere and...........

It's only surgeons in the UK who call themselves Mr. They are generally a bizarre lot and desperate to be different - they sometimes get terribly upset when someone calls them Doctor. My husband experienced it the other way round before he got his PhD -n a medical field): someone called him doctor and he said, "no, I'm just Mr" and they apologised profusely!!! 

The Royal College of Surgeons says:

"In most other parts of the world all medical practitioners, physicians and surgeons alike, are referred to as Dr while in the UK surgeons are usually referred to as Mr/Miss/Ms/Mrs. This is because, from the Middle Ages physicians had to embark on formal university training to gain possession of a degree in medicine before they could enter practice. The possession of this degree, a doctorate, entitled them to the title of ‘Doctor of Medicine’ or Doctor.

The training of surgeons until the mid-19th century was different. They did not have to go to university to gain a degree; instead they usually served as an apprentice to a surgeon. Afterwards they took an examination. In London, after 1745, this was conducted by the Surgeons' Company and after 1800 by The Royal College of Surgeons. If successful they were awarded a diploma, not a degree, therefore they were unable to call themselves 'Doctor', and stayed instead with the title 'Mr'.

Outside London and in the largest cities, the surgeon served as an apprentice like many other tradesmen, but did not necessarily take any examination. Today all medical practitioners, whether physicians or surgeons have to undertake training at medical school to obtain a qualifying degree. Thereafter a further period of postgraduate study and training through junior posts is required before full consultant surgeon status is achieved. Thus the tradition of a surgeon being referred to as Mr/Miss/Ms/Mrs has continued, meaning that in effect a person starts as Mr/Miss/Ms/Mrs, becomes a Dr and then goes back to being a Mr/Miss/Ms/Mrs again!"

It's the letters after their names that are important, not the ones in front! 

"A consultant physician is a senior doctor who practises in one of the medical specialties. Once specialty training has been completed, doctors are able to apply for consultant posts. This can be a very competitive process, particularly in certain specialties."

So the head of your team will be a consultant and the lower ranks (senior registrar, registrar and so on as they used to be called, grade something or something grade these days, only the names have been changed to confuse the innocent) may be almost as well qualifed/experienced as they are. Everyone below Consultant level is a "Junior Doctor" - some may have been training and passing exams for the last 15-20 years and still not have found a consultant post in their speciality where they want/need to work. JHunt's activities are also making it worse. But that's another story.

Ooops - and a Professor is only called that because they hold a University post, a Chair, and are involved in research and teaching in the Medical School. Even fewer of those than Consultants.

Too bad their patients (or the purported 'beneficiaries' of their teaching/research)  cannot be the ones to bestow titles which denote their competency !!

Thank you very much for that....I will try to find out if a consultant  does exist in my rheumie dept....as yet haven`t found one.......this has intrigued me....

Because of having such poor treatment in the past....as I have said...people say "are you seeing someone at the highest level!"

?I too despair at what the future holds here in the NHS....I would pay, if I thought it would help me.....but to whom do I go to!

These are the letters afer his name....sounds impressive to me!  MB, Bs, Msc, MD, FRCP (Edin)....... 

​Know what  some mean, but last ones,  I worked in a University for 25 years, and came across many professors...well, when they would scream they couldn`t use the phone.....usually it wasn`t even plugged in!!.....

MD means he has done a research degree - it is the medic's equivalent of a PhD, FRCP means he is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh which is the institution at which he sat his specialist exams.

I have one of those at home too - he was head of Medical Physics in a hospital and invented/developed ways of measuring oxygen in various tissues. He is a world leader in his field. Can he operate the washing machine? His mobile phone? Can he h*££! Like his mother he was in the back row when common gumption was handed out - at keast he uses his brains now and again...

Should have said - the consultant's name is generally the one on the board at the clinic saying who's clinic it is. The minions often don't get labelled. Which hospital is it?

Congratulations!

Umm, what for?  I'm not one of the besotted grannies posting on this thread.

Norfolk and Norwich.....I never name him, don`t know if that`s allowed on here....or would be right.....but maybe a good idea for a name and shame!

​Have met someone today who has told me of a relative who was diagnosed with PMR two half years ago at age 42, was put on 25 mg and kept on it for 2 years!.....how odd.....side affects were so bad she had to come off at 1mg a week....and is now managing with a low dose painkiller.....she dosen`t think she had it in the first place....no story surprises me any more really........

​In my clinic it says who is in today on a list....no priority.......sometimes a nurse stands in for the doctor....

​Mine here at home can do anything practical....but won`t have a mobile phone....struggles to answer landline, have had to show him how to do 999...................grrrrrrrrrrr....

A name is probably OK - but not a ripping him up post...

No - at 42 she should have been thoroughly investigated for anything else - and 25mg for 2 years would call forth an official complaint from me because it wasn't a recognised dose then and anyone on high dose pred must be monitored... But no - if she still has symptoms and a low dose ordinary painkiller works - it is highly unlikely to be PMR. I lived with mine but it wasn't thanks to painkillers. They did zilch!

I'm planning on being on the road more or less full time when they are teenagers - or moved far enough away that they think visiting is a treat. lol

Like us - we moved abroad!