OT Question; Pred hair

Hi guys, me again. Sorry to keep asking questions about pred but this time I ask this one out of happiness :) I seem to be doing very good after my last flare, either Imuran or enemas did the trick I don't know but this morning I saw a little snake in the toilet :) So my taper seems like it will be success this time but I had a blood test this morning and expecting results. Hope Imuran didn't lower my WBC but you know, knock on the wood :)

So my question; some of you might remember from my previous posts, I was a long time pred user I started when I was 19(now I'm 23) and had no beard, mustache or body hair except on certain body parts like my forearms and legs. Pred gave me an awesome beard but also gave me scattered hair on my back and shoulders. I know that moonface, bloating and mood swings go away when I come off of it but what about the hair? I shaved my back and shoulders with an electric shaver from time to time but it's a really annoying(and hard) thing to do. Will hair go away too, once I'm off the pred? Hope my beard stays though lol.

Thanks for answering my questions everytime and being faboulous at that @iPoop

(Beard will stay though, right? I love my beard. Only good thing my years on pred gave me, I've taken so many compliments for it. I don't want it to go away.)

(By the way, all those funny things you wrote in your "signature" always managed to made me laugh out loud so thanks for those too lol.)

****!!

I don't think I ever had a low WBC while on prednisone, it was always high... As for the hair stuff, in my case, it west away. You're a man, so as quincy said, it's possible your hormones are changing at the same time and you grew a great beard.

Imuran intentionally lowers your WBC. When we're flaring our WBC is high above the acceptable range of values. WBC are your immune system's attack dog, they flood a target area and cause inflammation. The less WBC you have, the less inflammation they can cause. The monitoring ensures your WBC stays within a safe range of values. As you need to have a certain amount of WBCs to respond to our normal immune interactions with things in the environment, otherwise (with a below range WBC) a small infection might turn into a systematic one, dangerous stuff like sepsis. It's low odds that you'll have your WBC numbers drop out of range, the Imuran dose is reduced as a reaction or discontinued well in advance of it becoming an actual problem. That's why it's preventative monitoring and essential for immunomodulators.

Generally you don't have to worry. Your doctor watches those numbers for you. The ideal range is on your Complete Blood Cell Count test results page, it's the same for everyone. Immunomodulators are very, very slow working medications and as a result your WBC and other numbers change very, very slowly over a period of months. Like a change of a couple tenths between tests (like from a 4.2 to a 4.0). They can tell well in advance that the trend is heading low, make adjustments well in advance of problems.

If you're curious and have access to test results (my lab has an app where I can view them) then look at the test results and see, results indicate the ideal range for each item and whether you're in, above, or below range for each item. Platelets, RBC, or WBC are generally what they're watching, and they're measured several ways (a count, volume, and percentage) in a typical Complete Blood Cell Count test.

The numbers vary some by CBC test, but it's usually anything consistently under 3.5 for WBC that's below range and concerning and will result in a dosage change. 3.5 itself isn't dangerous (you'd have to get into the 2's for that), but it's a warning sign to change things.

While on immunomodulators they should also be monitoring your Hepatic (liver) Function Panel blood test. Essentially, they're looking for enzymes building up to a large number (also appearing, above and out of range) Immunomodulators are metabolized within the liver, high enzymes signal trouble and they'd adjust dosage or discontinue.