Azathioprine and being a teacher and other questions

[kari]

azathioprine and being a teacher and other questions

Is anyone on Azathioprine and a teacher? The doctors are wanting to start my husband on this drug as they wean him off the steroids. The warnings are a bit concerning because my husband is a public school teacher in an urban school. Teachers and kids come to school sick all the time and the warnings on the drugs say to stay away from people that are sick or have infections. They also say to stay away from anyone that has had a live immunization. With the H1N1 scare of last year we know that there will be many people my husband associates with in close quarters that will have live vaccines.

What have been your experiences on Azathioprine? Is it true what I read about staying away from sports or activity that could cause bruising or bleeding? And that brushing your teeth or flossing could be too much on the soft tissue?

Has anyone ever come off steroids and stayed in remission without any other drug and tried to let their body do the work with the help of supplements, diet, exercise, and other natural remedies?

How effective is this drug and is it worth the side effects and warnings?

Thank you in advance!

 

[MapleLeafGirl]

I am on Aza right now along with prednisone. I have not been sick any more than usual (actually maybe less to tell you the truth). I just wash my hands lots and avoid touching my eyes, mouth, etc. I am not around kids a lot though so I can't comment on that as I know they are little germ factories.

I hadn't heard anything about avoiding sports or issues with flossing. I floss everyday and so far no gum problems.

Unfortunately, I have never been able to come off of steroids and stay in remission but I know there are others on the board that have.

I think the drug is worth the side effects if it works for him. Actually I haven't had any side effects at all except for a little fatigue when I first started. Just make sure he keeps up with his blood work as that is really important.

 

[Astra]

Hiya Kari

do not worry too much over this! Our immune system is supressed and lowered even more by the big guns like Aza, but we do still have quite a lot of immunity, or we'd all be dead!
common sense prevails with this one!
I work in a special school with kids with ASD, not the most hygienic of people at the best of times! I carry a hand sanitiser and stay away from sneezers!
I've been on Aza and loads of other meds, and not gotten seriously ill at all. The most serious infections to stay away from are TB and chicken pox, if there's an outbreak, your hubby needs to stay off school. and yes any live vaccine too like the TB one.
As regards to flossing, it's crucial that Crohnies floss daily, gum disease is very common!
xxx

 

[belle1999]

I work with infants and toddlers. They haven't learned how to wipe their own noses and then wash hands. We always have to remind them to wash hands and I do most of the nose wiping. Not to mention sneezing, coughing, etc. without covering their mouths/noses. I was on Aza. I just kept my hands washed and be extra careful around those children that were sneezy.
I don't know anything about staying anyone who has had live vaccines. I know that I can't have live vaccines, but I think it is okay to go around others who have had the vaccines.

 

[Lisa]

I too haven't really been more sick with other things shince being on 6-MP years ago, and Remicade for the past few years....

When my family went for the H1N1 vaccine, we all had the 'dead' shot - no live vaccine for any of us...but I have never heard about staying away from people who have had live vaccines.....

Both my daughter and husband had some type of nasty stomach bug a couple years ago now - I was the only one who did NOT get sick...lucky me got to clean up after 2 babies! lol

 

[Silvermoon]

I think I might be missing something here, but in my roll as a public health nurse and administering literally hundreds of the H1N1 vaccinations... I don't remember there being an option for a "live" vaccine..... there was one for pregnant women and a few other special cases that didn't have a perservative in it... but I don't remember a live vaccine.....

That being said.... I am a public health nurse, and come into contact with infectious diseases every day of my life.... as well as work directly with live vaccines. (btw, the only live vaccines I am aware of are MMR and varicella...smallpox as well, but that is not given on a regular basis... being well into his 20's I don't think your husband will come in contact with any live vaccines.... but I digress)....

Being a public health nurse, I will stand on my soap box now and preach my mantra:

"WASH YOUR HANDS, WASH YOUR HANDS, WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!"

*Silver gets off her soapbox.*

As far as "staying away from people who have had live vaccines"... this is true... IF your husband is going to handle their snot or their poop...more so their poop...as this is where the "live" part of the vaccine will be shed.

As far as aza versus prednisone....your husband was probably more suseptible to infections and such from other people while on Pred than on aza.... at the very least, just as suseptible.....

As far as the aza itself, if you go to the top of the webpage, find the search button, and search for aza, Azathioprine, and/or Imuran, I am sure you will find TONS of info on the site regarding people's experiences with it.

I wish you well...

 

[Lisa]

Not to hijack Silver - but in the US we have it.....

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-laiv-h1n1.pdf

The nasal does is a live, attenuated dose, the injection is the inactivated one.....

 

[Silvermoon]

Ah yes... I forgot about this one....
Thanks, Paso!!

I stand corrected.... lol :redface:

 

[Lisa]

Any time Silver!.....glad to be of assistance.....:ybiggrin:

 

[Aura]

I am a lecturer for early childhood teachers. I have just started methotrexate, I have talked with my colleagues and students about letting me know if they are carrying an virus or infection. I have lots of hand sanitiser, dettol spray for the toilets at work, face masks (only if needed for a meeting that can not be postponed. My docs are more worried about a secondary infection than the initial one. I'm probably over the topish, but with 30 students from 30 different childcare care services - :shifty-t: the bugs must be amazing

 

[Katiepede]

I am on Azo and when my Dad was in hospital, the whole ward got the norovirus... he had the norovirus, Mum got the norovirus from him, I looked after her at home....I washed my hands A LOT, and didn't get it even though I was in and out of the ward everyday!
(I know they say to avoid going into infected wards, and I wouldn't usually, but they let us because of how ill Dad was).

Although at the moment, I am a little concerned that I may get some bug after my boss coughed on my face the other day (and she is now off sick)! YUCK!

Keep smiling
x

 

[Barbie]

AWWWW you know what Im so glad I read this too cos I just started on aza again and I agree I think the pred can make you just as if not more likey to pick up bugs. When I was on aza in the past I really did not remember picking up anything more than usual. So Im sure it will be fine. It was a big concern to go back on it espec with my job now in the emergency services as we are always going out to people who have D + V and bugs etc and I spoke to the pharmacist at the hospital about this and if I would be endangering myself any more than I needed too and I was reassured by him that it really is nothing that major to stop me from doing my job and just to continue to follow infection control guidelines I usually would and I echo as Silvermoon said wash your hands wash your hands, It really is everything!! Im sure your husband will be fine and you have some fantastic advice from everyone :0)

Try not too worry. Silver thanks for the info there on the live vaccine and handling poop etc I think I will ask every patient now if Im going to be near bodily fluids if they have had a live vaccine though!!!

thanks again,

Barbie x

 

[I Love Lamp]

Im a teacher and on Aza and my immune system is probably better now than it has ever been. Just carry on as normal is my advice.

As for the bruising...i bruise like a peach when im doing any impact or heavy contact but it goes pretty quickly!

 

[kari]

WOW! Thank you, everyone for your words. Today I was able to bring my husband the computer for the first time since he's been in the hospital and I showed him this thread and the forum. He is happy that I have found you all and will get on himself when he gets home.

I think we dodged a bullet for now. The second round of doctor's that came in said that we could take a conservative approach since he's been healing so rapidly (and well) on the steroids and not do the Aza. Although, we did have a good chuckle that people on here kept mentioning that its the Pred that we have to watch out for, which we will. There were some great suggestions in there about being around sick people and thankfully my husband teachers science so he has access to a sink in his room.

It's hard to read the information about the drugs and not get freaked out.

Hopefully, my husband will never have to go on Aza but if he does this thread will be so helpful for him/us. Thank you so much everyone. It has been so wonderful to have this group to turn to as I try to do all the research while my husband heals in the hospital.

On another note. We asked the GI doctors if there were any support groups at the hospital or city that we live in and they told us today that there is an intern looking to start a group but needs someone to help her and I said that I would do it.

I can't imagine people dealing with IBD as a patient or a partner having no one to talk to about it. This has rocked our world and it's such an interesting disease (I suppose it mean it's seems like such a silent disease). People need to be able to talk about this with other people going through the same thing. Hopefully, we can get this group started!

 

[poolside]

I am a teacher, have spent years on Remicade, Aza, methotrexate. I even had chemo for 6 months and came back to work afterwards with a white count of "nothing much" lol.
I am a good hand washer and like to use the hand sanitizer as much as possible, I haven't had a cold in 5 years. I am not kidding, not even a sore throat. Last year after chemo, my whole staff was off sick, except for you know who. Again, my white cells were dangerously low, and I remained healthy!
I do inform my fellow staffers to please avoid me if they are sick, and they are pretty good about it. But I don't take it to extremes.

 

[Rebecca85]

I am going on aza soon, hope my fellow members of staff are good about keeping away if they are sick. Don't hold out much hope, as they didn't tell me one of the children was sent home with shingles when I was on pred.

 

[Mike_in_IL]

Everyone reacts differently to everything it seems, but here is another example for you:

9-10 years ago, I was on Prednisone and doing well on it except for when I tapered down to 5-10mg per day (which wasn't enough to prevent me from re-flaring up). I also was put on Azathioprine (175mg/day) during this time and it took several months for it to kick in. The Remicade is what ultimately put me into complete remission and once I stopped it (in late '01) the Aza kept me there for 8 1/2 years up until recently! I was literally on nothing else at this time and NEVER had a single side effect from it. Blood work always confirmed white blood cell counts to be normal and I rarely ever got sick too.

Although I am a public high school teacher (just completed my first year) and did get several sinus infections during the year...but that could just as easily be rooted in the fact that nearly every new teacher gets sick a lot their first year until their bodies build up an immunity to the environment.