Hi again
I gave up work because I could not cope with it... foggy brain, I was doing research at a university and could not keep up the very hectic pace. I now work part-time from home ( a very small business) with severely reduced income and very supportive but skint partner.

Love does conquer all and family will get as used as you will to managing all this, it just takes a while to adjust.
I was in my mid 40's and had been ill off and on all my life and worked full time until then. You are a lot younger and your lupus may be quite different to mine so it is not a good idea to draw a comparison here and say "Oh my goodness, that's me broke" because it probably won't be. I probably could work more than I do but I choose less money and better quality of life, like semi-retirement. We moved from a house to a smaller flat recently so that I could have an easier life and work less hours.
My recommendation is go with the sick leave, don't worry about work for the next couple of weeks and get rested and used to this illness.
My first rheumy was pretty unskilled, I phoned lupus UK, spoke to their local contact person and got a recommendation. I went to the GP and asked her to refer me to this doc which she did. I was very lucky with my GP and found her very supportive. The new rheumy is brilliant and the clinic he works from has won an award from Lupus UK. I am lucky in that I now only live a mile or so from the clinic. They have a lupus nurse there that you can talk to who will answer loads of the problems without you needing to see rheumy regularly. So ideally you need to find a lupus rheumy at a hospital with a lupus nurse. There are only around 15 lupus nurses in the country.
I have a new doc who is not so lupus aware, as I said in another post, so having the lupus nurse to phone is brilliant. I spoke to her today and she is going to speak to the rheumy and get back to me about a change of medication.
Communicating with medics is a skill, and not an easy one. One trick is to only go in to discuss one issue. I usually say to my GP "I am feeling lousy but my main concern is such and such", and then we sort out the such and such and leave the rest of the stuff for another visit. So he can treat me for everyday stuff, flu, flu jabs, bruised shins, sore throats but for anything lupus he prefers it goes via the rheumy. You have to learn to use the system and that takes a bit of experience and practice. I have friends in the NHS and they work incredibly long hours and put up with a lot of abuse and very little in the way of thank you from patients and I am one of those people that think the NHS is mostly very good. I would hate to have to pay for my treatment, in fact I would not be able to. I would also probably be dead without (I had severe peritonitus and jaundice in my teens) and my partner would be without the use of his arm. There are some unskilled and unpracticed people but you can work your way around them. And one way to do it...
I think while you are off work join Lupus UK
http://www.lupusuk.com/
and get the name and phone number of a local Contact person, there are Contacts for most UK areas and have a chat with him/her.
I see the Rheumy regularly but the gap is always at least 4 months unless I am really ill. If you have just started plaquenil you need at least that time, if not more, for any changes to take place in disease activity. So that is probably why the wait. But I think you need to find a lupus expert to put your mind at rest.
Hope this helps... wrists hurting now so off to bed with me.
Sara