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started Imuran, love the new gi

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Posted 12/19/2007 7:12 PM (GMT 0)
I went to my new gi yesterday and was very pleased with her.  We talked for about an hour and she took excellent notes.  I was tapering off of 30mg of pred to 20 mg a day and was getting sick again.  She upped me back to 30 mg a day until I go two weeks with no symptoms.  Hopefully I will never have to take it again after that.  She ordered bone density test for me because of all the pred I've taken over the years.

She also started me on Imuran 150 mg per day.  I'm also having all the new IBD blood tests done.  Hopefully the results will be here soon.  They took 5 big vials of blood from me yesterday and the nurse had to stick me in each arm as the first one stopped flowing.  She was moving the needle all around and I asked her to try somewhere else, I didn't want her tearing up my dang arm.  I'll remember her and try to avoid her for all my Imuran blood work.

If you are now on or have taken Imuran I was wondering if you had any problems with it and if it helped.

Thanks

Posted 12/19/2007 7:22 PM (GMT 0)
I have been on Imuran in the past. I started it when I was 13 which was 15 years ago and I remained on it until January 2006. I went off of it since I had a severe case of bronchitis that lingered even after the pneumonia cleared...I get it all about the same time every year.

Imuran was the only drug available at the time that was able to help me get off of prednisone. I wont lie I did need short courses of pred here and there for flares but Imuran helped my gut symptoms a lot.

I began Remicade in 2001 since my joints were the biggest complaint I had about my CD since my other meds were controling my gut. I tried all of the other options celebrex, vioxx, naprosen etc with all of them causing my gut to flare and the flares stopped when those meds stopped.

My biggest issue was when I was on both the Imuran and remicade at the same time...most doctors now dont like to place CD patients on that combo since it has shown to increase the chance of leukemia.

My white blood cell count dropped drastically while I was on both Remicade and Imuran simultaneously. It went down so low that my hematologist ...yup got another specialist out of the deal...was going to have a bone marrow biopsy done if it dropped any mroe at all. It went down to 2.3 or 2.1 I forget which at this point. I lost some stress in my life...basically divorced my 1st husband who was bi polar and refused meds and also would abuse me so when he left the picture and my stress level dropped my wbc went up again.

I had to keep up on myGI as well he would rarely do labwork on me after a while it was my remicade nurses that finally would do the labwork after getting him to approve the labs
Posted 12/19/2007 7:28 PM (GMT 0)

Hello,

I started Imuran Friday.  I had tapered from 40 to the 30 of Prednisone.  I just developed Crohn's the week of Thanksgiving and was in hospital 12 days.

My doctor told me he had been doctoring a long time and had seen so many wonder drugs come and go that he prefers to go this route because this drug has been around long enough.  Actually, mine is Azasan, which is the same thing.  Anyway, he then  began my dosage a bit differently than yours.  I started with 50 mg pills, but I am only taking 1/2 a pill a day.  He does not start people on the full dose.  He waits and sees how they tolerate.

So, as I posted yesterday, my bloodwork came back with the WBC at 3100.  He said that could cause me not to be able to increase the Azasan.  So, I had the blood work repeated yesterday and in 4 days my WBC went up to 6600.  With that news, he told me to decrease the Pred. to 25 but not to increase the Azasan.  That has to stay at 25.  My next instruction is to call him the day after Christmas, and tell him how I am and he will tell me what to do next.  However, that a.m. I am to drop the Pred to 20, and he said he may tell me to add the other 5 back that same morning, or he may not.  He did not say whether or not I will increase the Azasan that day. 

I also take 12 200 mg Asacol per day and a Rx iron since I am still anemic.

Hope this helps you in your hunt for info.

Posted 12/19/2007 9:57 PM (GMT 0)
I started Imuran 75mg 6 weeks ago, and last week upped it to 150mg (I'm 5'7 and 130lbs) so I'm at the full dose where I should be.
I'm feeling better in terms of my CD, but I do still have some slight stomach pain. The last 2 weeks i've been pretty much symtom free minus the slight stomach pain but my doc advised me it could be the pred i'm taking still (as i'm tapering) and felt so many side effects from the pred.

It's hard to say wha tside effects i'm having from the Imuran but since I went on it, i've been a bit more tired and not really hungry anymore.
I'm glad about that seeing I gained 15-20 lbs when I started the pred in september, and now i'm losing some weight as i'm not eating everything in sight. (I was never like that in my life until I took that med, prednisone)

My doc eventually wants me on Imuran and Remicade together, but i'm not to keen on that idea, heard a lot of things like dragonfly mentioned so I dunno. I hope it works out for you tho :)

Btw, my WBC was at 10500 when I started Imuran, now it's at 9600, seems that it's kicking in for me just the last week or so.
The blood work is usually every week for the first 4 weeks, then next 2 months every 2 weeks, and after that once a month I was told.

Posted 12/19/2007 9:59 PM (GMT 0)
I was on it for 3 years. Make sure your dr. uses the prometheus propredict metabolite blood test to make sure that you get in your theraputic level without toxicity. I wasn't in my theraputic level and my toxicity was high, so my gi took me off of it a few weeks ago.

Take it at night...
Posted 12/20/2007 2:22 AM (GMT 0)
I've had wonderful luck w/Imuran! It has kept me in symptomatic remission or full remission since 2003. I've had no adverse side effects except perhaps an slight increase in "the tireds" at first. I'm so very prone to nausea from so many meds yet thank goodness was not "blessed" w/any nausea w/or w/o food w/the Imuran. We've had to adjust the dose up or down a few times according to my weight. Blood work is now done every 3 months. Prometheus every 3 months at first, then 6 months and 6 months and now only when we suspect an Imuran dosage adjustment might be needed.
Posted 12/20/2007 12:03 PM (GMT 0)
Hi I am on Imuran for over 2 years and have no-side effects from the Imuran. I pray you have good luck with the Imuran. Keep us posted.

teddybear
Posted 12/20/2007 1:08 PM (GMT 0)
Blue...I'm not on imuran, but I had to say how great it sounds that you are happy with your new GI! You sound very happy since the move. I hope all keeps going well.

I am considering imuran thanks to all the wonderful input from the people on this site...I am just not pred dependent and not sure I am ready to step up the meds. I hope it gets you off the pred.
Posted 12/22/2007 7:31 AM (GMT 0)
bluemeanies....

well I started 150 mg of imuran on oct 3rd. My bowel symptoms are a lot better than when I was only on Asacol however I felt like I had a bad case of the flu the first month that I was on it. BIG TIME tiredness and nausea. I don't have the overwhelming someone knocked me on my butt tiredness but I still feel a bit tired and nauseous every time I have to take the pills for about 30-45 min on top of the usual crohn's tiredness factor.

My worst side effect is hairloss. There is another post on here that was posted in the last couple of days that talks about others that have lost hair.... However, this is different for everyone so maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones. =0)

YAY for you on getting a good GI doc! That always helps.
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