6MP/Steroid Taper: Pain

[Shannon]

Hey guys, let me know what you think.

I just started 50mg of 6MP about a week ago. I am also down to 25mg of Pred daily, from 50mg the beginning of September. I am noticing that while my D and C is managed, the abdominal pain is hauntingly coming back, especially in the mornings and evenings.

I guess what I want to hear is if you think I should be concerned at all. How long did any of you have to wait for teh 6MP to kick in? Maybe that is all this is, the 6MP just needs time?

And I know that while there is treatment, I am still a Crohn's patient, and should expect a little bit of a reminder from time to time! But I had gotten so spoiled on the Pred, it's just sort of annoying to have the pain come back. My anti-spazz for the bowels (Bentyl) isn't doing anything either.

So what do you think? Give the 6MP more time before I panic?

 

[Silvermoon]

How long were you on 50 mg of pred?

Yes, I can relate to how you feel for sure. I started a lower dose of pred around the same time cause I jsut couldn't take the pain and tiredness and crap anymore, and I felt SO awesome i didn't want to taper... lol. But with upcoming surgery, it is best to be off for a bit before surgery to help healing after....

With you starting at 50 and already down to 25, you could be going through a bit of a "withdrawl"... you notice your symptoms more and such as the pred isn't suppressing them so much.

6MP was the one drug available in Canada I haven't tried...lol. My doctor ruled it out as I had reacted so bad to Imuran she just didn't want to even try it (although I am back on Imuran now and doing OK... so far...), so I am not sure how long it takes to really kick in, but between tapering the pred and starting the 6mp, I would give it about another month or so before I start to question....

That being said, if it gets really bad, I would see your doctor sooner....

Hopefully things settle soon for you.

 

[My Butt Hurts]

6mp is known to take up to 3 months to even start working for a lot of people. If you are handling your pred well, I might ask your doc if you can bump back up to 40 and take a taper by 5 mg every week.
I always get much better results with prednisone when I am on a slow taper.
Also, that's a low dosage of 6mp, isn't it? Maybe you could bump that up in a month or so.

 

[Shannon]

I started the Pred the first week of September, and have been tapering by 5mg each week, so I'm down to 25mg right now. 3 months! Agh, that might be too long for this pain. I will talk to my doctor about maybe bumping up the Pred, even though I don't want to, it does manage things well. It is a pretty low dose of 6MP, because I just recently started it and I have a feeling they are trying to figure out how dependent I am on steroids in order to gauge my treatment. And it would seem I'm fairly dependent! Thanks to the both of you.