Prednisolone and Imuran advice

Hello again

I have not posted for a few months as I felt things where on the mend I will give you a brief outline so far

I did a course of Prednisolone for about 10 weeks along with taking 4.8 mg of Asacol finishing the Prednisolone in the first week of September this year.

Since finishing the Prednisolone I have been experiencing watery stools and some loose stools had about three days of good solid stools but mainly loose and watery. BM range from 2 to 4 a day no urgency or blood. I was diagnosed with left sided late 2011 but a scope this year round about July showed I now have pan colitis I did experience quite a bad flare starting in about December last year I have lost about 22kg in weight and have not been able to put this back on as of yet. The first cours of Pred I thought worked its magic but since coming off it as above.

my question is and any advice is greatly received as I am quite worried about what to do next as I have been reading up on all the side affects of doing to much Prednisolone and a new drug which I have now been told I will need to take called Imuran.

I read a lot of post and see a lot of people take Imuran on here. I have no urgency or Blood do I really need to take these drugs? I have had a stool test done that shows active inflammation still so I can see why I may need to do another course of prednisolne but the thought of Imuran is a worry to me. Please any advice is greaty received if anyone can tell me how they feel on Imuran if there are any other options.

I appreciate this is a long post and that you are not doctors but I have had some great advice from this forum in the past and thought I would just put it out there as I am sure you all understand I just want to get on with my life and try and live as normal life as possible with worrying about further health complications accasotated with Perscriptions drugs.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post all advice greatly recieved.

First of all, it can take a few months before the Imuran starts working so you are going to have to take pred during that time anyway. Second, prednisone only works while you take it and quits when you quit it. Third, you can't take pred long term or it will do more damage to your body than UC will. This is for information purposes only as I personally don't like to recommend Imuran.

Hi thank you for the response the nurse has recommended that I take 40 mg of pred for two weeks then tapper 5mg a week.

After I have been taking pred for two weeks I am to phone her and then probably start to take 50 mg of Imuran for two weeks then increase the Imuran by 50 mg every two weeks until I get to 200mg

Probably sounds a little silly but I am just a bit worried about taking all these prescription drugs and the possible side effects.
What is the worse that could happen if I don't take the Imuran?

I'm thinking about starting the pred again tomorrow Monday and see how I go. is it possible the 5asa will keep me in remission with a second round of pred

With what you were doing before you went from left sided to pancolitis, which means you got worse. What strategy do you want to use to get better, take pred every time you need to? That would be an extremely bad idea. Long term prednisone use will destroy your body much worse than taking Imuran. I have seen the effects of people who take prednisone long term. It makes 60 year olds look like 80 & 90 year olds.

My condition does not warrant Imuran as I do better than most. If I had a choice between repeated prednisone use or Imuran it would be an easy choice. Imuran wins hands down. No contest.

I totally get why you're scared, it's not silly at all. These are major decisions.

The first time I weaned off pred, I asked my GI 'what now?' and he said 'nothing'. Nothing. He left me completely med free because he said 'the effect of steroids stays in your body for a while', something I now know to be a lie. I am still so angry about this, I wish they had started me on Imuran then and there. Because of course I got sick again, very sick, and had to go through another round of steroids.

Basically, yes, it's terrifying. But the thought of getting even sicker, or staying on pred for longer, is by far the worse option. Don't delay - it takes months to kick in and in that time you'll be forced to take more steroids.