[Purpletop]

I've been diagnosed with lupus/SLE in 2012 and have been on mycophenolate and Plaquenil (an anti-malarial used in the treatment of lupus) until this summer when mycophenolate stopped helping. The rheumatologist changed it with ciclosporine and continued with the Plaquenil as usual.

In the first month of taking ciclosporine I had blurry vision in my right eye that went away rapidly. I went to have it checked, however, but all was ok. I then needed to increase the dose of ciclosporine to get to the therapeutic range for lupus. The day after starting the increased dose I started having blurriness in my left eye and also difficulty opening my lid to that eye during the night.

I left it like this for few days thinking it is a side effect and the body will soon get used to it. It didn't. I went to emergency twice with my eye. They did all the tests possible but my eye is fine. The ophtalmologist said, however, that the combined ciclo and Plaquenil may have exacerbated the side effects of Plaquenil.

Spoke to rheumatologist and he's told me to stop taking both drugs for two weeks. There is no improvement. Not only that but yesterday and today I'm having a feeling like something is stuck in my throat. I can still swallow at this point in time but the feeling of having swollen throat is dreadful.

I've looked into Plaquenil and there are some articles online suggesting that it could cause temporary MG. Temporary as in 2-6 months.

I am now seriously worried. It wasn't enough to have lupus, now I have to worry about this too.

Has anyone experienced drug induced MG? If so, how long before it removed itself and mor importantly, has it ever resolved itself?