| Sparks 2005-08-11, 5:53 pm |
| Hi All
I have previously posted asking if anyone had any experience of Hydrea
(Hydroxyurea or Hydroxycarbamide) and from the replies it was clear that
this was not a widely known drug despite being a rather old treatment.
I have had Psoriasis for about 25 years and am now about 30% covered. Coal
tar, UVB, Dithranol treatements all tried over the years with no effect
until I have finally reached the stage that dermatologists find my case
interesting.
They tried Neotigasen as its called here in the UK. (Soriatain - Acitrin ,
not sure of the spelling) with mixed effects but no overall improvement.
Then came MTX. which I did not handle very well. I became very tired and
couldn't think straight to the point that I wasn't safe to drive at times.
Worst of all is that there was almost no improvement in return for the side
effects.
Now I'm on Hydrea and I feel fine, at 1.o g/ day for one month and now
1.5g/day for another month the Psoriasis is fading slowly and generally is
much easier to live with.
All in all I'm happy with the progress, even if it doesn't clear up just to
be free of the constant shower of flakes is great. I'm sure you can all
relate to that.
For those of you who have to pay for your treatment you might be interested
to know that this is one of the cheapest of the drug treatments.
In the data sheet it is described as being less likely to be effective but
is also less likely to produce adverse side effects. My opinion is if it
works for me then it was worth trying because it does show results very
quickly. I guess that I saw an improvement within 2 weeks so it's pretty
quick to tell if it's working then it's worth trying.
Thats the good news and I thought I'd share that with you.
There is in my case some bad news, my blood tests show my platelet count
has fallen below 100 (UK scales are different for US) and I've been told to
stop taking the Hydrea. Isn't that just like this ****** disease. Either
it refuses to respond to treatement or if it does it throws in a side effect
just as you start to feel optimistic. I've alway tried to avoid building up
my hopes but this comes as a big dissapointment. I don't know what to
expect next, can they do something at a lower dose, and simply hold the
improvement at its current levels or do I have to give up the treatment
completely.
Regards
Sparks
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