Xeljanz update

I thought one man's experience with this newly FDA approved drug might be of benefit to others: Tomorrow I will be 4 weeks into taking Xeljanz in an attempt to taper off of Prednisone for a flare that started in April. Most of the time from April on I've been between 40 mg and 30 mg of Pred. I was DX with severe pancolitis last November and have been on Remicade for several months to no effect. Having started Xeljanz on Oct 11th, I noticed results after 3 days - frequency and urgency decreased... intestinal gas increased... by the end of the 1st 5 days, I started tapering Pred (in anticipation of this drug I had stepped down the week before from 30 mg to 20 mg Pred). Long story short, this Tuesday was my last day on Prednisone! I'm free (for now) from the devil's tic-tacs My experience is the following. Urgency very workable... Frequency reduced. Blood has appeared from time to time, but only in the morning. What is interesting is this: I have 2 main BM "events" morning and night. These "events" are where I need to do a BM, but it's small, followed by passing of a great deal of gas... another small wave, etc, etc... then the main event and done 30 minutes later. Then really nothing for the remainder of the day... the small BMs are liquid, the main event is solid-ish, but most importantly (gross, but you all will resonate) - it smells "right". UC BMs smell just wrong... anyway, for me. As I read for the trials of this drug, ~18% of non-placebo will achieve remission after 4 weeks. 40% after 1 year. However, in the 8 week group 31% achieved deep mucosal healing. Suffice it to say, I'm highly encouraged, however still waiting for BCBS insurance to approve after receiving my 1st rejection. If approved, I'm ok with this new normal. Anyway, hope this update helped those dabbing with Xeljanz...

This is great news Nealzy. I am getting a colonoscopy to follow up on Remicade which is not relieving my symptoms- doc said possible switch to Xelanz pending scope results. That was a very short prednisone wean wow.

Prednisone is known to cause insomnia (jsut take pred early am, just after waking up for the least odds), but I thought you were off of that. Which med causes insomnia?

I've had no issues with sleep/insomnia and Xeljanz... I am finding fatigue throughout the day that I'd attribute to coming off of Pred from 20mg to zippo in ~4-6 weeks... I will say that day 4 off of Pred (as of today) and solely on Xeljanz I am having a few more liquid BMs than solid which is a step back... I know going back to 10-20 mg Pred would knock that back to solid, but no - not going back to that... but that does validate the whole get-to-70%, then months to heal beyond that. I'm encouraged by the Xeljanz studies that show a high number of patients get deep mucosal healing... that's where I'll hang my hat while I deal with a few more frequent and liquid BMs as the urgency and # of BMs is tolerable... Now... how long for the Pred weight / lower energy to wear off... think I'll actually try to go back to the gym as energy begets energy

Dosing is 10mg twice per day. I've seen immediate results, then a transition to very slow continued improvement - now in week 5 (and approaching 1 week without Prednisone for the 1st time since April) a transition to more solid BMs. During the 5 weeks, there was a increase in gas - with quite large releases of gas, which has now eased off in Week 5... of course, like with UC, result may vary, but I'm still highly encouraged!