Confused about GI answer about imuran and blood tests

[lilninja]

Hello,

A bit of background I've been on imuran for a little over a month. I was tested before taking it to make sure my body could break it down. I was put on 150mg a day along with still cutting down 5 mg a week of predisone. At the two week make I had a blood test, it said my white blood count was a little high13.5 so GI sent me a letter to see my PCP. My PCP gave me blood test ( 25mg of predisone at the time) and it showed same thing. GI had me take another blood test two week after first ( 105 mg of predisone at the time) one results for white blood cell count were 15.1. I called today and was told predisone can make white cell count high and GI don't want to test again till I'm off predisone.

My questions are:

Does this sound right to not test till after predisone is done? I thought most people stay on predisone till imuran kicks in?

If GI knew predisone causes white cell count to be high why test at all or sent my to my PCP?

Shouldn't my white cell count still be going down if I'm on less predisone than the first test not higher?

Sry so long thanks for the help

 

[Catherine]

I know I have been told pred can increase the cell count. In Sarah case is seems to increase her hemoglobin levels.

Are they going to test again in 4 weeks?

 

[seebee]

When will you be off the pred? I would insist on continuing to take blood once a month (at the minimum) while keeping in mind that the pred may cause the numbers to be off.

 

[lilninja]

I should be off the pred in two weeks if all goes well with tapering down. I just dropped down to 10mg today. I was not told when next test would be but planned on called GI when I was done with pred.

 

[Johnnysmom]

It can take a long time for White Blood Cell count to react. My son had levels that were too low so they adjusted his medication and they actually continued to go down for 3 months after that. The GI said that was normal. By the 4th month they had gone back up.

 

[lilninja]

Thanks johnnysmom that makes sense, wish GI would have told me that lol. Sometimes I think they have to many patients and forget to tell people the little things.