Hello there and a warm welcome to the site,
There are quite a few young members on the site and also some parents of young members.
It sounds like your daughter has been having a rather tough time but I'm glad to hear that she is near to diagnosis and most importantly that she has begun treatment.
Plaquenil is very much the first basline treatment given for lupus and some other auto-immune diseases. It is a very important drug in that it modifies the disease and can reduce the frequency and severity of flares. It's main disadvantage is that it takes quite a while to kick in, typically around 6 months. That can seem like a very long time to you right now but it is worth the wait and it is a drug that has little or no side-effects.
If, in the meantime, your daughter was suffering too many symptoms, the rheumy would be able to prescribe something else to help. Treatment nowadays often consists of a little cocktail of finely tuned drugs which can be adapted to the individual patients needs. No two people react in the same way either to the disease or the drugs.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have, there are a lot of experienced caring people on this site who can be of great support and give very good advice.
bye for now,
Katharine
There are quite a few young members on the site and also some parents of young members.
It sounds like your daughter has been having a rather tough time but I'm glad to hear that she is near to diagnosis and most importantly that she has begun treatment.
Plaquenil is very much the first basline treatment given for lupus and some other auto-immune diseases. It is a very important drug in that it modifies the disease and can reduce the frequency and severity of flares. It's main disadvantage is that it takes quite a while to kick in, typically around 6 months. That can seem like a very long time to you right now but it is worth the wait and it is a drug that has little or no side-effects.
If, in the meantime, your daughter was suffering too many symptoms, the rheumy would be able to prescribe something else to help. Treatment nowadays often consists of a little cocktail of finely tuned drugs which can be adapted to the individual patients needs. No two people react in the same way either to the disease or the drugs.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have, there are a lot of experienced caring people on this site who can be of great support and give very good advice.
bye for now,
Katharine
