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How long do you take 6-mp before giving up on it eradicating the uc cells?

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 6/14/2012 4:07 PM (GMT 0)
Just going to start on 6-mp in a couple of weeks and Im wondering why people are on it for so long...yrs. It is a scary drug and has taken me a while before consenting to try it as a way of eliminating other treatments like prednisone. Im 52 and have had UC for 25-30 yrs so too many yrs on/off pred. thinking surgery so this is going to be my last kick at the can...hahaha . I dont like the idea of having my bone marrow suppressed for such a long time, Also would like to know when the side effects start. immediatly? I know it takes 3 or so months to show cellular change but what about the nausea fatigue and hairloss?
Thanks again
Great resourses here... and no one complains about my spelling!

Ellie
Posted 6/14/2012 4:21 PM (GMT 0)
I was on 6mp for about 2 years. I don't even know why I bothered taking it that long because I never had any real remission with it. I don't recall ever having any side effects from it. The only thing that comes to mind is I used to get bad migraine headaches but I could never pinpoint if it was the medication or something else. After the 6mp I tried Cyclosporine which is even scarier than the 6mp. No go with that one then on to Remicade. That was a bust too. I'm so much better off now with no colon. No more drugs!!! I just hope I haven't done the damage already and somewhere down the line I am faced with some scary cancer from all the drugs I was on. Unlikely I know but it looms in the back of my mind. Surgery is a tough decision that I know all too well but there came a time for me that I was just so fed up will all the crap...no pun intended. You may not be to that point yet. Hope the 6mp helps you. :)

I came back to edit this because I forgot to mention that 6mp put my cousin in remission 13 years ago and she is still in remission. She is one of the lucky ones. She stopped taking it about 4 years ago. Knock wood...she's been fine.
Posted 6/15/2012 12:26 AM (GMT 0)

ellie1234 said...
Just going to start on 6-mp in a couple of weeks and Im wondering why people are on it for so long...yrs. It is a scary drug and has taken me a while before consenting to try it as a way of eliminating other treatments like prednisone. Im 52 and have had UC for 25-30 yrs so too many yrs on/off pred. thinking surgery so this is going to be my last kick at the can...hahaha . I dont like the idea of having my bone marrow suppressed for such a long time, Also would like to know when the side effects start. immediatly? I know it takes 3 or so months to show cellular change but what about the nausea fatigue and hairloss?
Thanks again
Great resourses here... and no one complains about my spelling!

Ellie


Prednisone is far worse for you than Imuran/6mp.

Imuran/6mp are used as maintenance drugs for people who have not found sufficient relief from mesalamines. The theory behind them is that you currently have an overactive immune system which causes it to attack healthy cells- the drug brings those immune levels down to normal. A lot of the stuff that you read about these drugs is related to people who have had organ transplants. They take much higher doses of the drugs and, as a result, have greater side-effects/long-term effects. My GI said that any negative effects from immunosuppressants are far better than continued inflammation- you're at a much greater risk of cancer if you don't get the UC under control.

If you haven't experienced nausea or fatigue yet, I don't think you will. I can't speak to hair loss. I've been on Imuran for 3 months and the only effect of the drug that I have noticed is complete remission. I'm staying on this drug as long as it is effective.

Just stay on top of your blood tests and you should be fine.
Posted 6/15/2012 1:07 AM (GMT 0)
I take 6mp and I've probably been on it for almost 2 years at this point. I am currently only take 25mg and my UC has been well behaved lately. It's up and odwn but the downs have not thrown me into a massive flare up like they did prior to 6mp. I am hoping this is due to 6mp and not just the course of my illness. It certainly seems like this is the case for me being I never had ups and downs that were manageable prior to 6mp. I don't have side effects from 6mp that I notice. I always had fatigue and I had more hairloss from my initial exposure to Asacol than I have had from 6mp. I have regrown the hair I loss when I started Asacol. Nausea hasn't really been an issue for me. The worst problem I've faced is decreased WBC. It's a tough one too because it seems like it steadily, slowly drops over time.
Posted 6/15/2012 11:34 PM (GMT 0)
I was on Imuran for 14 years and it treated me really well, as I got severe pancolitis under control and it stayed there for the better part of the time I had the disease. I lived a very active life on the drug and although I do believe it made me more tired, it wasn't debilitating. I may have experiened some appetite suppression on higher doses, but again, nothing completely out of the ordinary. 6mp/Imuran is well worth it, especially if your disease doesn't respond to other treatments. Had it not been for Imuran, I would have lost my colon within the first year of diagnosis.
Posted 6/16/2012 10:57 AM (GMT 0)
If I recall correctly, my doctor told me that 6mp took about 4-6 months to become effective.  I took it for years without any known side effects.  I was at a pretty low dose, 25mg per day.
Posted 6/16/2012 8:09 PM (GMT 0)
     I will be 66 yrs old in a few months.  Had a total colectomy with end ileo two years ago.  I suffered with UP (proctitis) for twelve years before surgery.  For seven of those years I was on 6MP.  Like ByeBye UC....don't ask me why I took it so long.  It did NOT keep me in a long term remission.  I think when I first started, it did help me attain a remission for a year or two, but then I started to flare more and more frequently.  I have a friend with UC who took 6MP for ten years and it kept her in remission.  The doctor took her off the drug about a year ago and she went into a flare almost immediately.  Her UC is in remission once again with her using Rowasa and VSL#3.  I never took the VSL#3, but did take Rowasa for quite a few years and tried Cort enemas and Canasa rolleyes .   My GI doctor took me off the 6MP when he saw it did absolutely nothing and my liver and pancreatic enzyme levels were off the charts.  I tried Remicade and then Humira before resorting to surgery....best decision I made.
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