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Starting Imuran, anyone have some helpful words.

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 8/3/2011 2:34 PM (GMT 0)
Had my first follow up today. My GI is the same one who performed the Colo / Endo and I have to say after seeing him again today I like him. We talked about how I was doing and I've made a lot of improvement, and was surprised when he said my case was pretty severe when I went to the ER. Even though I wasn't in a lot of pain at the time.

I weaned from 40mg of Pred to 15mg and still feel good. He decided to start me on 150mg of Imuran and stay at 15mg of Pred until the Imuran has a chance to take affect. He gave me the side effects speech and in doing my reading here over the past few weeks I understand that it can really cause probelsm in people. So naturally I'm a bit anxious to start taking it. I was curious if anyone here could help me out with their experiences with it.

Thanks.

Posted 8/3/2011 2:52 PM (GMT 0)
We have many members who are on either Imuran or 6mp and have had been on these meds with success for over 10 yrs. Your doc will monitor you closely, so give the med a chance, it might get you feeling better. Hugs!
Posted 8/3/2011 4:43 PM (GMT 0)
I'm feeling good already, it's kind of strange because my GI said I had a severe case. Reading about the lymphoma side of it really made me nervous initially but then I read the study posted here and the chances compared to an average person are really not that much greater.
Posted 8/3/2011 5:13 PM (GMT 0)
If on azathioprine and have been since 1995 except for a 12 month break beginning autumn 2009 when I had been in remission for 6 years so GI said good idea to see if I could manage without it. Bad idea, had massive flare that took months to get under control and was worse one I have ever had. The azathioprine (think in USA called 6mp) works brilliantly for me, no side effects except get colds/viruses bit more often and even if CD flares up it is soon rectified with short course of pred.

I restarted the azathiorpine in December and Humira in January mainly because the azathioprine takes 3 months to get into the system and start doing it's thing. Now stopped Humira as had very bad side effects and will stay on azathioprine for life and hope it has had enough time to keep me in remission. Will know in about 4 weeks when Humira out of my system completely.

Imuran/6mp/azathioprine are good medication and work really well for lots of people. Your GI will keep a close eye on your regular monthly blood tests to ensure liver function is not being compromised. Hope it works as well for you as it has for me.
Posted 8/3/2011 7:21 PM (GMT 0)
I took Imuran for 8 years. Had 7 years of remission with it. Never had a side effect. Worst thing that ever happened to me was my doc increased my dose and my WBC got low, so they reduced it. Other then that, I never had a problem.

My sister in law has Crohn's too and she's been on Imuran for about as long as me. She's never had a problem with it either.
Posted 8/3/2011 7:58 PM (GMT 0)
I've been on Imuran for a while now and it helped me through a lot. I got over a year of remission with it. Unfortunately, my diagnosis changed, some of my other meds changed, and I flared...so that's where Remicade came in. I'm still on the Imuran, and it continues to help me along.

Your doc will monitor you, and you should also watch for allergic reactions to it. Stay out of the sun and/or wear lots of sunscreen just because. =]

The only thing is that it takes a bit to start working, so don't get discouraged. In the beginning, I felt like I was taking sugar pills or something because nothing was happening. It takes time. You'll be ok.
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