6mp? Prednisone? Antidepressants? Diets? HELP!

Good afternoon fellow crohnies! I am writing because I am at a loss...I am so frustrated and overwhelmed right now that I can barely type this out. Bear with me...

I am having a pretty bad flare...recently I was hospitalized and they had me on Prednisone which makes my body go haywire -- so i was weaning off the steroids and once finished, two days later I was back to the way I was before the hospitalization but this time I was bleeding and severe cramping, diarrhea..you know, the works. SO now my doctor wants me on 6mp because it literally is the ONLY medicine I haven't tried and she wants me back to 40 mgs of Prednisone. Plus an antidepressant Lexapro which I told her no too because i am not depressed. i am just frustrated that it's been forever since I have felt even slightly close to normal and i have been on every drug known to man, fda approved and clinical trials!

So I guess my question to the group is has anyone taken 6mp? How does it make you feel and how long does it take to become effective? Should I even consider this? Are there any other options?

Last summer I was actually in remission on a "medicine holiday" as my doc put it. I was on a gluten free diet and doing acupuncture...it worked for a few months then I flared again. Are there any other diets that worked for people?? I really don't want to go back on the Prednisone -- so i am really trying to look for any alternative there is.

if you have tried anything and it's worked please share it! i really hate drugs..i have been on so many that haven't even worked and left me with side effects i can't ever get rid of. =(

thanks!

Been on 6mp for several years now and it does very, very well for me, as it does for quite a few people here. Absent side effects (which only seem to bother about 10% of people and are generally relatively minor) it seems to be on of the most widely used and most effective maintenance drugs for CD. It does take 90-120 days to reach full effectiveness, but after that many people do very well with it long term. I would say give it a try!

I also think 6-MP sounds like a good option. It's a great maintenance medication for a lot of people. As others have said, it does take several months to have an effect so you may need something else in the meantime. If you want to avoid prednisone, enteral nutrition (special liquid diet used for several weeks) is a clinically tested option. Doesn't work for everyone, but it can be as effective as steroids, and responders typically see improvement within the first 10 days. You can find more about it by going to the sticky at the top of the threads labeled "Crohn's disease resources" and looking for the link in that thread to "Diet and Nutritional Resources for Crohn's."

Hi Mel,

Try clicking on the links in my sig: they might give you some ideas of other therapies that you could try, in consultation with your doctors.