Posted 6/11/2015 8:31 PM (GMT 0)
I much prefer Remicade to the Imuran. Sure, there are horror stories, but they are actually pretty rare and every medication (even tylenol) can have horrific side effects. Imuran gave me pancreatitis and it never put me in remission. Remicade has been a lifesaver for me.
I am actually EXTREMELY shocked that you have been on budesonide for eight years! It's a steroid and is NOT meant for long-term treatment at all. Honestly, the Remicade would be safer than the steroid for that long of a time period. Budesonide isn't as damaging as prednisone, but it is extremely irresponsible of your doctor to have let you use it that long.
The fact that you're on Budesonide and your Crohn's has worsened anyway leads me to believe that your Crohn's is not mild. Imuran is one of the least-effective Crohn's medications out there (although it IS more effective than Apriso, which ironically enough gave me pancreatitis as well). Most GI doctors don't even prescribe Apriso anymore, and prescribe both Remicade and Imuran together. The Imuran helps keep you from building antibodies to Remicade.
Keep in mind when you read warnings about medications that the wording can sound scarier than it is. For example, if a medication (no specific one, I'm just speaking hypothetically here) has a warning that it "triples the risk of cancer" then it sounds scary. But if you consider that the risk of cancer is normally only, say, 2% then you only went up in risk to 6% which is still pretty low.