stopping 6mp

has anyone ever stopped 6mp/mercaptopurine and NOT flared as a result???  if so, did you add another drug to your regimine to keep from flaring, or did you just continue as you were but without the 6mp?  i am wondering, because i am reading all of these scary cancer stories from 6mp, and i want to get off of it now...it's freaking me out.   but i am just winding down from a terrible flare and being off and on pred for 2 years, and i definitely don't want to take pred again.  thanks for any responses.

i need to update my sig but don't have time right now, but i am on rowasa nightly, getting off pred (am taking .5 mg every other day and will totally stop next week), taking folic acid, ultimate flora critical care probiotic, and delayed release phosphatidylcholine. i was on oral 5asa for a long time, but during this last monster flare, they seemed to be aggrivating the condition more than helping it, so i am currently on a hiatus from them!

You sound like me. You know how I feel. I prefer not to take it as well. I hope I can try LDN or try working with 5ASAs to get things under control again without 6mp. I wonder what the chances of that happening are... I wouldn't freak out too badly about being on it, I've heard there were only 43 cases of that cancer in 2010 but still, it is scary to think about. How do we know those numbers are accurate and how to we know we won't be one of those 43?

I stopped 6mp on my own decision over 2 years ago. No I didn't "flare" in the sense that I got worse but I was never really helped by 6mp or any other meds I took (except mesalamine enema). I was taking another med also, probably Asacol which never gave me any improvement either.

When I told my GI she was fine with it and wrote an Rx for Balsalazide and dropped the Asacol.

The reason I stopped 6mp was side effects and having no improvement after almost a year.
Did Balsalazide help? Hard to say, I didn't have any improvement on Balsalazide either and I knew that stronger meds were the only thing left to try (Remicade or Humira). That's when I got really serious about diet modification and then finally started to get better.

Have you talked to your doctor about what your alternatives are if you stop 6mp?

Imagardner, when u stopped taking 6mp, were you stable at that point, and then stopped it and stayed stable, or were you still flaring?

I never had any improvement from meds I was prescribed over the years including 6mp so stopping it didn't make me worse. I never really can say I had any remission from meds from the time I got diagnosed and that was 10 years at the time (11 now). I just kept getting more bleeding and urgency and D. Mesalamine enemas really were the only med that gave any small amount of relief until (for the second time seriously) I changed my diet.

Over the years I've also tried many, many supplements but nothing helped. This could be because my condition was too severe, I mean Rx drugs didn't make a dent. I tried diet modification several times before and was unsuccessful there too.
This last time (Jan 2010) something went right with food modification.

Good luck. I know your dilemma because I was there. Do what's best for you.
Sometimes it is easier if we don't know all the things that can hurt us and just take what the doctor gives us.
If that had worked for me I wouldn't be on this forum but then I wouldn't know important information either.