Anyone taking Imuran?

Ayone taking Imuran?  Getting ready to get weined off of prednisone an onto Imuran.  Kinda of concerned about the warnings of Imuran.

Presently taking:

Prednisone 40 mg

Rowasa

Colazal

Canasa

Welcome to HealingWell, twirliegirl. There are a lot of people here on Imuran. If you do a search, I'm sure you'll find a lot of discussions of it.

I have been on imuran for 2 years. I have a lot of fatigue but I am not sure if that is the Imuran or the disease in general. Remember it can take a few months to kick in!

Imuran is what made the difference for my husband. He became steroid dependant and every time he tried tapering off the prednisone it would flare terribly. May '07 hospital admission imuran started along with 40 mg of prednisone and a very very slow taper (stopped the prednisone early Dec 07) and the 75 mg of Imuran in May 07 was increased by Mayo Clinic to 150 mg in Oct 07/

Mid May to July 3rd - about 6 wks we noticed a difference in that the frequency and BMs started to show some control and he was able to abandon his being a "recluse" and go out for a few hours. It improved slowly bit by bit and by Sept/Oct he was doing much better.

He is fatigued - has to push himself sometimes to do things - not in a full remission - but having hit rock bottom and knowing what that was like he is grateful to be about 80-90% most days. He says if he started out the way he feels now on a daily basis he probably would not be a happy camper but when you can compare the lowest of lows and have some semblance of a life as he now has he is grateful for what he does have. Kind of strange but when you put things in perspective and know that so many out there are battling much worse he can accept it more readily.

He also takes the cortifoam 4-5 times a week at night - initially every day in the am and pm and that also helped a great deal too we think.

When we went to Mayo I had a number of questions about Imuran and the specialist there told me "I know you are having concerns about this drug - let me assure you it is a safe drug if monitored correctly." Every month my husband has 3 blood tests - the results are faxed to the Mayo Dr - he reviews them and his office calls in a prescription for 30 days - we are doing this for a year. After that I am not sure if it will be every 3 months or what but that is how he is being treated at the moment.

Hope this helps you and your concerns.

I guess he is less tired now that the prednisone is gone but he is still quite fatigued which interferes sometimes. He has to force himself to get up a lot of times and get moving. For the most part since we are retired it is not a big deal and we can work around it. Not so easy for most of you younger people with responsibilities that must be tended to regardless if you are tired.

It is disappointing that he gets so much rest and still feels sleep deprived but I guess it's the nature of this beast???????