Did you start (after prednisone/entocort) with a biologic, imuran/6mp, or combo?

[BayAreaChronie]

I am 25 years old and tapering off the pred. Though I do not notice many of the symptoms that are associated with Crohns (for now) my colonoscopy showed severe Crohns and heavy scarring where they couldnt even enter the ileum and cecum.
Every GI i have seen so far has given me different opinions. Being in my 20s and a male, risks are elevated for side effects. And from each perspective, it seems one or the other or both together has a greater risk vs the other/s.
What were you all told and which did you end up doing if recommended at one point to take both or select on your own? When you dont see the symptoms that you can get with Crohns, it makes the cons outweigh the pros so much more.

Thanks,

 

[Jennifer]

A combo that worked well for me in the past was Asacol, Entocort and 6MP. Although Prednisone was added to that combo at one time. I took 6MP for around 15 years and never had any side effects from it (I was around 15 years old when I started taking it, I'm female btw). Started with 50mg and went up to 100mg until they decided it wasn't doing the job anymore and have recently switched to Humira.

I think because I was diagnosed so young I may be a bit naive about the possible side effects but even though I know what the side effects are I've never let that stop me from trying medications that make sense. After having so many tests over the years, I don't need to see what it looks like anymore to know that it needs more aggressive treatment to stay in remission (for me anyway). I don't want to have surgery again. For me the cons were always a flare that's uncontrolled forcing surgery and the pros are remission.

When it comes to Crohn's I don't fool around and I know when I have a good GI so if they recommend something I usually go with their suggestion. I also have a good Rheumy and he gave me the option of going on Humira or Remicade. We talked about pros and cons but I knew the 6MP would be out of the picture soon and needed to pick something so I went with the Humira. So far so good.

 

[BayAreaChronie]

I guess I will start with the Humira only at first.
Seems Humira has more of a con with my age and being a guy but Imuran takes too long to kick in. Also there seems to be some new reports saying starting with Humira and adding Imuran later is better than the other way around. And GI classifying me as severe with the scarring I have I guess they know the cons outweigh the risks by percentages.
Seems like Humira for the first injection is 4 times and then 1 a week and then a constant 2 every week. Guess this is the same for everyone?

 

[Jennifer]

I'm not 100% sure since I'm pretty new with it as well but others said that mine shot schedule sounded similar to theirs. 2 shots for 2 days in a row (some people are told all 4 at once mine was split though), then 2 shots on day 15 and then 1 shot every two weeks I believe. I haven't done my 15th day dose yet.

Hope it works for you. I was told it wasn't uncommon to take something like 6MP along with Humira.