Lynne
As I am sure you have been told, Sjogren's is an autoimmune disorder. Besides it, I have three others and they are all related. I was diagnosed Sjogren's nearly three years ago and got really lucky with the doctor I was referred to. You need to see a rheumatologist. It is a permanent condition, not life threatening and annoying as can be. I take 400mg of plaquenil and 5mg of prednisone daily and will for life. I also take 500-1000mg Naproxen on an as needed basis. I found that fats (bacon, sausage, butter, margarine, etc) aggravate it so try to avoid them as much as possible. I also have mixed connective tissue which just means the muscles and tendons are involved and turned my fingers into what could easily have passed for sausages. What has helped along with the medications has been exercise. I like walking/running. I try to move as much as possible, which means getting up and down a lot at work. I work in an office. My Dr. did try to eliminate the prednisone but couldn't. He also told me was it would take several months for the medications to show any noticeable results. He was right. Something else that has helped tremendously is massage and physical therapy. Check with your health care provider to see what kind of coverage you have. One other thing I found is that drinking water that is a bit warm seems to help with the dryness better than cold water. If you have any questions, I don't claim to have all the answers but I can offer some moral support, e-mail me just be sure to put Sjogren's on the subject line. Don't be discouraged, I consider this just another annoyance in my life and is so much better than some of the other autoimmune diseases I could have ended up with. My doctor was encouraging and told me I was going to be fine because I was doing whatever I could to help myself. Take care.