Hey there

i too am concerned about the latest acknowledgement of increased risk of heart attacks with celebrex. I have also been on them for 3 years without side effects and I really know about it when I run out and am too unwell to get to the pharmacy for a few days. Initially I was taking naprosin but stopped because of possible long term gastro probs..... It makes you wonder if there is any meds out there that don't have some long term effect. The catch 22 is that we can't survive without these treatments that prolong our lupus lives or we will be back to survival rates of 10 years after diagnosis as it was 20-30 years ago. So we are really at the mercy of the pharmacuetical companies....Who are always :d smiling at our unhealthy expence!
Keep in touch

kelly may

Wow. I guess I should have read your post before I posted mine. My doctor already took me off celebrex and now there is nothing for me to take except muscle relaxants and pain meds. I hate feeling tired and drugged all the time so I tend not to take them during the day. But, then by night time I hurt so badly that I want to curl up and die.

I have a blood disorder, on top of everything else, called factor v leiden disorder. It causes blood clots, high platlett levels etc. Along with that I have a protein c deficiency which is pretty much the same thing only different enzymes are involved.

If anyone comes up with an alternative for celebrex or vioxx I would love to hear it. Sometimes I wish I was a scientist, or medical research doctor. I would work day and night to find a cure for this ball and chain that I have to carry around every day.

Oh, and whoever it was that recommended the link to the spoons website that was awesome. I emailed that story to my entire family. Now everytime I see any of them the first question they ask is "how many spoons today?" my dad has heart disease, he was told 6 years ago now that he only had about 6 months to live. He has been living day to day ever since. He said the story described the way he feels as well. So, now he and I compare our spoon level from day to day. He is the strongest man I have ever known and has a will to live like no one else. He truly inspires me everyday to keep going.

I'm done rambling now.

Lori

Vioxx, bextra, and celebrex are all cox2 inhibitors and work in very similar ways; in fact they are just formulations of the same thing. Pfizer makes both celebrex and bextra. The fda is reviewing these drugs, and is considering removing bextra, but not celebrex (money comes into play here, I am sure). The technical names are very similar of these two drugs. Celebrex is celecoxib and bextra is valdecoxib. The typical dosages are very different. You would take 200mg of celebrex, but only 20 mg of bextra. I believe, in my own uneducated opinion, that bextra is just a more potent version of celebrex (less additives) which would be ideal for those who are sensitive to additives. I am unsure of what vioxx's technical name is, but I do remember it ended in "coxib"! I wish there were something better out there; especially since my pain is not relieved by the bextra 20mg and for obvious reasons, I am uncomfortable taking more.