Sulfasalazine

Hi Natalie

Sorry you are feeling so rotten particularly at this time of year. To put things in context for you I have ankylosing spondylitis, palmaplantar psoriasis and guttate psoriasis and I now believe psoriatic arthritis so I do know where you are coming from! Given that I am sure you are not able to contact your rheumatologist at this moment in time I would offer the following advice despite not being a doctor.  Some time ago I was on sulphasalazine which did work but not for four months. They then increased my dosage (doubled) and I ended up in hospital with pancreatitis which is a rare complication of the medication. At the time I only had ankylosing spondylitis. I should state at this point I am only 4feet 10inches tall and I believe they gave me an adult dosage without taking into account my size. Whilst I am not suggesting for a moment that this will happen to you it is nonetheless a side effect. I have had cortisone injections which gave me severe headaches and nausea but this passed within a couple of days. However my advice to you is to go back down to the original dosage of sulphasalazine because it may be that combined with the injection your system is having trouble coping or stop the medication and see if your symptoms decline/disappear. You should not be suffering these all these side effects which of course is very concerning for you. I would also ring up your rheumatologist's secretary tomorrow to explain the situation and state that it is urgent and you need a response to your questions. I have done this before, just call the hospital and ask to speak to his/her secretary. This will hopefully put your mind at rest. Take heart your condition will not last forever you are obviously in the middle of a flare up. I am about to go onto methotrexate to hopefully alleviate my symptoms. If you need any other information or a sympathetic ear please do not hesitate to contact me. Take care and let me know how you progress, best wishes. 

I could never get hold of the dermatology nurses because they put the answering machine on when they are in clinic hence trying the secretary who I usually got through to in the mornings. Forgot to say there is a wonderful site you can go on run by the National Psoriasis Foundation that has a Team Inspire organisation where people can register and join discussions and threads with their individual interests or concerns. Indeed you can just read through the main discussions and look at the responses. I have found out more information on there than anywhere else. You receive regular daily updates with posts that are active - it has been my salvation and reassured me regarding questions I had over medications, treatment and the disease etc. You realise that you are not alone in your situation - it is a very positive and inspiring website. I cannot provide the direct link to it otherwise the moderator on this site will delete this post. Good luck I hope it helps you as much as it has me.

Ring your specialist nurse helpline - that's exactly what it's there for!  Have you discussed methotrexate - I'm on combination therapy that seems to be working really well now.