Azathioprine/Imuran query.

Hi Scottishcammy,
You have been lucky! .. Ive been on Aza for 2+Years and never actaully reached remission while on it. Not sure WHY im still on it!! But dosage increased to 150 (just like you) and fingers crossed.
I understand you concerns, I would suggest maybe decreasing the dosage only.. for a period of time, Ive heard of other users on here doing that and being fine.

Best doing what the quacks tell you to though!
All the best..
C'mon the hoops!!..lol

Thanks for your replies. As a side note, I went into remission in May 2008. I have been totally in remission (i.e. back to how I was before). I had my appointment at the consultant's in Feb this year and they made the next appointment 6 months way as I was doing so well. about a week later I had a flu shot and a shot for the bird flu virus. A few days after that I noticed urgency, a small amount of blood, increase in wind, basically a flare. Now that's the first I had since being diagnosed, and my original flare was horrendous, ending up 2 weeks away form the full surgery until the drugs thankfully kicked in.

I phoned the IBD nurses who in turn told me to use the Saloflak enemas. After about a week they worked, but after stopping maybe 3 or 4 weeks of using them, the flare would return. This has went on since February, though I seem to be out the woods now (touch wood!!!).

My questions is, do others have these 'small' flares without them progressing into a huge flare? Is this normal in UC for some folks?

I see the consultant on the 10th this month.

My GI told me when he started me on 6MP, that if it worked, I could only stay on it for a maximum of 5 years. At the 5 year mark the drug would be eliminated and I would have started back on 5ASAs. I never got that far. However, this was in 1998 and information may have changed since then. Talk more with your GI.

Sue

Interesting. I've been coming on this forum and that's the first time I've heard there was a time limit on Azathioprine!

I've been on it for almost 5 years now, and although I've never had a flare as bad as the initial one that hospitalized me, I've also never been completely in remission either. Apart from a halcyon period that lasted about 9 months (ie no blood/urgency/3+bm's) I've always had good and bad mornings.

Personally, I would like to be off it but my GI says it could lead to a high risk of relapse and in his experience a full-on 'relapse' flare could be worse than the original one.

My reason for wanting off it is because of the skin issues I've been getting lately. The Dermatologist said that people on immunosuppressants are at a very high risk of basal cell carcinomas as 6mp 'thins' your skin leaving you more open to solar damage. Of course I found out too late and suffered the consequences. I'm now a wide-brimmed hat wearer on the golf course stinking of sun-screen!

He said that the dosage for me, (male 195lbs) at 150mg is really quite an innocuous amount of this otherwise powerful immunosuppressant . Comparing to the much larger dosage of say transplant patients. I guess the regular quarterly blood monitoring should allay any fears of cancer risk.

Now my next GI appointment is Feb 2011, by then I will have been on it for over 5 years and on 'borrowed time'!