New to Crohn's, any advice?

Hi Wren 12,
Welcome to Healing Well. This is the best place to learn about our illiness. The people are
very caring. Well its been awhile since I was on Imuran. The only thing I remember is
your doctor with do blood test on you.

We have many folks on this forum taking Imuran or its sister med 6mp. These meds are good for helping folks reach remission and stay in remission. Be sure you do your regular blood tests as ordered by your doctor. Good luck and I hope it works for you.

THanks everyone for your welcomes and replies. Glad to be apart of this forum and also apart of a commuity that understands. I start the Imuran this morning so will see how I go. I think it's just that long list of side affects that gets quite scary and the thought of getting any of those on top of all ready not feeling well doesn't make me feel all that great. I was only diagnosed in late November but since then have only had about a week with little to no pain so really hoping these tablets do the trick. Harley I'm sorry to hear about the Arthritis, it must be awful. Was that a side effect from the meds?

Joint pain sometimes shows up with flares. I also suffer with Osteoarthritis related to my Crohns, but I have had the disease for years before that showed up. With the Imuran, it can cause some fatigue and nausea when you first start it. You might need to switch to taking it at night to avoid some of the side effects. Also, you might get some hair shedding with it too, but by adding some additional Folic Acid and Biotin, that will help to stop it some. Hope the Imuran gets you into remission. And usually within time the side effects go away. Hugs!

Hey thanks for all the advise. Greaat to hear from you all. NIceCupOfTea, I have heard that Imuran can increase the risk of melanomas. A bit scary so have loaded up on the sunscreen and have my het ready. Not going to take any chances with it. Hoping that the nausea won't be too bad. Have braced myself for it though so if it happens, it happens. I"m in the middle of a bit of a bad flare up now, though I've only had about a week of feeling 'good', so hoping that the Imuran will help out as I don't want to have to increase the Prednisone again. I only had a week and a half left and I would have been of it...

Artist Guy that's great about the bike ride. Must feel good to be able to do it again. At the moment, I'm a little house bound. I try to take my daughter for a walk in the pram but usually don't get too far. Which is not good for her but hopefully things will improve soon. Day one of the Imuran and I've been very dizzy and a bit nauseous but hoping that this will get better and not worse.

Remember to try taking it at night if the side effects bother you.

Thanks Nanners, I think I will try again today taking it this morning and see how I go and if it's still not good I will switch to night time. I just get worried with the dizziness, when I'm on my own.

Thankyou for the welcome Jenn. It is good to be able to talk to people that understnad and are very knowledgable. I do have a good GI. At first he seemed reluctant to tell me too much about what was going on but I understand now that he didn't want me to get more stressed as it seems that that is one of my biggest problems and triggers. But once I started to show some signs of improvement he opened up and things started to seem brighter. (Even with the future outlook of having Crohn's). He told me that we just have to accept what we're given and do the best that we can with it. So that's what I"m going to try to do. IT's very hard some days but I think to myself that if todays a bad day, then maybe tomorrow will feel better and I"ll be able to do something fun to make up for the bad day.

I think myself lucky as compared to alot of people on here, my Crohn's is not that bad. I remember talking to a nurse one time and saying that I guess it's just one of those things and she said 'Yes but not when it happens to you'.