6MP

Can anyone tell me what form the 6-mercaptopurine usually comes in?  Is this a tablet, capsule, liquid?  How big is it?  Just trying to get an idea of whether or not my daughter would be able to swallow it, if it is prescribed. Thanks.

 

My daughter started with one 50 mg pill.She is 11 and around 95 pounds.Unfortunately she had bloodwork done that showed it was too high a dose for her and could cause some problems in the future.She needed to go to 40 mg.Of course we cant get it in pill form so we had to find a compounding pharmacy that would make it. The store pharmacies like Giant,Weis and the Cvs stores dont do this.We had to go to a small local pharmacy and they have made it for us.They do add flavoring to it for the kids but it is still a little bitter. Any other questions just ask.

As the others posted, 6MP is prescribed somewhat by your daughter's weight, but it will also be decided by how she is tolerating the medication and how her liver is metabolizing it. That is one of the reasons for all the blood work. The original dose should be weight based. Then the blood work starts. At some point you should ask to have the blood sent to Prometheus to check for the therapeutic levels as well as the toxic levels. They are the only lab that can do the therapeutic levels. If your daughter isn't at the therapeutic level yet, then the dose can be increased if the toxic levels are OK. And if the toxic levels are too high, but she is in the therapeutic levels, they can lower the dose. It is all a bit of a game in the beginning. I have been on doses as high as 150mg and as low as my current dose of 50mg within the span of about 12 years. Just make sure that you keep up with blood work and request to have it sent to Prometheus occasionally, but get prior approval from your insurance for that one!

Well she is only 63 lbs. so I'm guessing her dose would be pretty minimal.  As for bloodwork, she's an old pro at that, at only 9 years old. She doesn't enjoy them, but they don't scare her the way they used to. Her doc has been checking her blood on a fairly regular basis since this all began last winter. She's had bloodwork done about 5-6 times now so if that's our biggest obstacle, we'll take it.