Afraid to start azithioprine

I've been avoiding this for a year now and doctor wants to discuss this again in a couple weeks. I've been in my first flare for 21 months now. I asked two questions at my appointment last week: how do they monitor for lymphoma and how long do I have to take it if it works? Answers: they do bloodwork every two weeks in the beginning and I would take it the rest of my life if it works.

I am really struggling with this. Anytime I hear the word cancer it sends me into a tail spin and I can't think straight. I'm still trying to gain remission through diet.

Any thoughts? My inflammation (proctitis) was severe last year and it's moderate this year.

Not really a help to you, unfortunately, but what was your proctitis medications from beginning to thinking about Azithioprine? If it means anything, I'm on oral prednisone with mesalamine suppositories nightly. I've been on prednisone for 6 days and the suppository was just started last night.

I'm only recently diagnosed, colonoscopy showing proctitis was a month ago. The weird thing is I was never this symptomatic...

I have the same fears as you..my Gi wants me to go on aza
I'm figure now I might try it if it might help me and give me some quality of life, also what made me change my mind is, girl next to me in hospital had uc for like 13 years and she was dependent on steroids until the steroids stop working for her and she just found out she had cancer and had to have emergency surgery and now has a bag and she is only 32 years old.

If your symptoms are now moderate, why not just go with asacol & leave it at that?
Personally I think they have the azithioprine protocol down pretty well. I've had no issues, they do the bloodwork, it's a very vigilant time and if they see anything off, then you are off the med. After the first few months, I only get bloodwork twice a year now.
The benefits of this drug in my case have been pretty miraculous, azithiaprine put me into remission and pretty much keeps me there, It's changed my life literally.
Try not to be afraid, there's nothing to fear.

I was scared when I started 6mp. I've had a lot of trouble with my WBC. I think they can tell if you have something like lymphoma if your WBC gets too low and doesn't' recover. It has something to do with certain types of counts within the standard WBC that gives them clues. I had to go to a hemotologist because of my WBC but it ended up improving without needing any treatment from the hemotologist. He wanted to do a bone marrow biopsy but I had a feeling it was from 6mp and not lymphoma and I was right because shortly after, it went back into the normal range. I've been taking 6mp now for a year to 2 years and I haven't had too many problems. My UC seems to be behaving as well so I can't complain.