Abdominal Pain Questions?

[squidinktea]

So, I've had a very mild form of Crohn's that's been kept managable by first Pentasa and then later Mezavant, with only a handful of attacks to my name.

But I haven't actually been in remission, just that I've had no real symptoms, so in an attempt to actually push me into healing completely my GI's started me on a mix of Prednisone and Azathioprine. I'm currently at week 3 at 25 mg of Prednisone(tapering off 5 mg per week) and 100mg of Azathioprine(with one more jump to 150mg in a week).

And the side effects have been manageable: chipmunk face, night sweats, increased appetite, difficulty sleeping and such. But after the increase in Aza it seems abdominal pain has been added to the mix? It almost feels like menstrual cramps, except in addition to being located in that area, it's also in the transverse colon area?

It's become severe enough that it'll wake me up in the middle of the night and make getting back to sleep impossible until I take a muscle relaxant or pain killer or something, and seems to be increasing in frequency?

Is this normal? Is there anything I can to help stop it? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[afidz]

It may be that your disease is progressing or since you are tapering off of the prednisone, your symptoms are coming back. The cramps that you described sound a lot like what many of us experience during a flare.
Are you still on Pentasa? Pentasa is generally used to treat Ulcerative Colitis. The difference between UC and Crohn's is that UC effects only the top layer of the intestinal wall whereas Crohn's effects the entire wall. Pentasa only treats the top layer. I don't know very much about Aza so I can't really help you there.
You can try putting a heating pad on your abdomen or take a hot bath. Any type of heat usually helps me. Also, there is a drug called Bentyl that is anti-spasmodic, it doesn't help everyone but it helped me a lot.
If the pain gets unbearable you can always consider going to the ER to make sure everything is ok (as good as it can be) if not, get in contact with your doctor and let him know that you are feeling worse