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Trying new drug Imuran? What to expect?

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 8/20/2015 7:26 AM (GMT 0)
Been having 6-10bms per day taking mezavent so my specialist has put me on imuran with a combination of prednisone to help with mucosal healing to get into remission. what are your experiences with Imuran? Does it work for you guys? How often does it not work and how common are the side effects
Posted 8/20/2015 7:50 AM (GMT 0)
Did you search? There are lots of past threads identical to this one
Posted 8/20/2015 8:32 AM (GMT 0)
Yeah I searched I didn't see anything, I apologise if I'm reposting i am a bit incoherent right now from the pred
Posted 8/20/2015 11:10 AM (GMT 0)
Imuran/6mp/aza are used by many of us here. When first starting it, it is know to cause nausea. Take it just before bed with some good to help avoid it.
Posted 8/20/2015 11:39 AM (GMT 0)
In the beginning you can get nausea or headaches. I take it with a big meal ( breakfast usually) and that helps
Either way those side effects tend to go away after being on imuran for several weeks
I am going to warn you that you will not see improvement overnight in fact, it can take a couple months for the drug to reach a therapeutic level in your body.however, after several weeks you may see some small improvements.
Hopefully, by the time you are off the steroids it should've kicked in.

Good luck!
Posted 8/20/2015 11:56 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Mike

I have been in azathioprine for coming up 15yrs. In that time I've never been in remission. But that's not a negative, I had a very manageable disease thanks to the drug. That said I am quite tolerant of the disease ... I have no choice I feel.

Azathioprine helps to balance out the disease - helps reduce the big crashes. Over the years I've had a few bigger flares and have largely managed without resorting to pred. That was until a couple of years ago when it all went to pot ... And azathioprine was no longer sufficient and I got stuck on steroids... With surgery looming.

Everyone will tell you everyone is different - and they are. I got a good number of years out of azathioprine alone. But don't expect miracles. Good luck.
Posted 8/20/2015 12:46 PM (GMT 0)
I've been on Imuran since 2005 and I've been doing good so far. Nausea off and on but that's a lot better than bloody diarrhea.
Posted 8/20/2015 3:35 PM (GMT 0)
I've been on Aza for 4 months now and am still having bloody BM's a couple times a day (5-8). I can't seem to get past 10mg of pred either so for me it hasn't really seemed to work. It seems like it may have improved it a little bit since when I was on high doses of pred I was doing a lot worse and only after 2-3 months of Aza did it go from 15 to about 5-10 BMs a day but Aza alone isn't doing it. So as mentioned before, it seems to help but isn't a standalone med for me.
Posted 8/22/2015 7:57 AM (GMT 0)
I'm staring my third month on 6MP, I was on 50 mg for one month then 100 mg after that. It does take some time to kick in, but I'm finding it helpful - I've been steroid free for almost 2 weeks now and am 90% back to normal.

I started by taking it at night as recommended here, and didn't have any side effects at 50 mg. once the 100 mg kicked in (after about a month at that dosage) I did get some nausea and a lot of fatigue...though I'm not sure if it was the 6MP, the really bad migraine, or the trip I took all around the same time :(

I've also noticed they it tends to suppress my appetite, which is actually a relief after having been on steroids for so long and wanting to eat constantly, lol
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