My 15 year old daughter just diagnosed

Welcome to the forum, Chrons2014. I'm sorry to hear your daughter has gotten this diagnosis. I'm glad to hear she's feeling better and I wish you luck with her treatment. I haven't taken 6MP so I don't have any advice for that part.

Where is your daughter's disease located? How long has she been ill? Is she hitting her developmental milestones?

welcome and I'm glad to hear your daughter is feeling better. You might want to check out the Crohn's website at ccfa.org and you can read about all the different medications for Crohn's and watch some informational webcasts. It takes 6MP several months to work and she should be closely followed with blood work, but it has helped many people remain in remission. Ask us anything you are wondering about....it is all so overwhelming at first!

Many Crohn's patients are treated quite successfully with 6MP or it's sister drug Imuran.

The only thing you want to be aware of is, 6MP has to be at the correct dose to be effective. It has to be at a certain therapeutic level.
She will need a metabolite test done to refine the dose so that it's optimum.

Thank you all some much for your responses.  I'm going to take all your advice, about the book, the website everything.  It's very overwhelming, but, at least we finally got a diagnosis, and can move forward.   

Hello

My son had taken 6mp since February 2012. Before he started it he had to be tested to see if he had a specific enzyme in his body that would enable him to break it down. Once he started to take it he had to have his bloods monitored every couple of weeks to start and then every month and now it is every 3-4 months.

After about 6 months they sent his bloods to Prometheus Labs to see if the 6mp in his system was at therapeutic level and in his case the dosage was increased to reach the desired level.

He takes it before bed and seems to have very little side effects other than a little hair loss. He has been very fortunate in that he has not picked up any extra colds but when he does get a cold it takes him longer to kick it.

I hope it continues to work for him as he too was very thin but he has grown so much and gained nearly 30lbs. He works out and plays basketball and feels better than he has in many years.

I hope your daughter will respond well to 6mp and I understand how overwhelmed and worried you guys are feeling now. I guess the worry never goes away but as time passes it gets easier and with the help of a good Doctor you learn how to deal with the disease.

Wishing you the very best.

Hopefully the medication will put her into remission and she can eat what she wants, but if issues persist, I second the diet recommendation. Diet can (not often, but it does happen for some people) be as/more effective in gaining remission as/than medication. More usually, though, it will help manage the symptoms left after medication does its job. Common irritants include alcohol, caffeine, high amounts of sugar (such as from drinking lots of soda or sports drinks like gatorade), spicy things like peppers, and greasy/fried foods. I've also found that heavily processed products can cause problems, plus they're generally not as healthy anyway. And, if you cook it right, the more natural stuff tastes better!

anyway, having been diagnosed as a teen myself, i know how that is. i'm sorry she's stuck with it. Hopefully she'll stay healthy enough to carry on an otherwise normal life. If she does continue to have issues, keep a careful eye on her weight/activity levels. I was pretty healthy as a teen, but all of my hobbies involved sitting. When the disease got worse, my sedentary lifestyle meant that my muscles went fairly quickly. Long-term, that's been more damaging to my normal-life-path than anything else. Building muscle mass from a normal activity level is tedious and painstaking. Building it from near-atrophy is worse, and not something I've managed.

If she's already active, try to keep her that way. Hopefully her symptoms don't make activity painful, but if they do, there are usually solutions to that. If she's not active, try to encourage her to be more active. Just, yknow, be careful about how you do it. Teenagers (especially ones on prednisone) do not respond well to nagging, pestering, or reminding, as I'm sure you've learned by now! Maybe go with her on walks to nearby places? Doing it together makes it seem more like you're helping her than making her do something.

Hi CROHN'S2014, ive been on pentasa for a couple of months and it has helped me a lot in combination with other meds

Thank you all for your wonderful advice.  It's been very helpful, and informative.  As of today, my daughter is still feeling great, and tapering off the prednisone.  She is still on Pentasa, and 6mps.  So, were praying, that all goes well.  Thanks again, God Bless all.