Energyless...any advice on which meds to avoid??

[Goddess]

Hi, all...I need advice on medications/energy levels.
Had a flare 2 weeks ago. Currently on 40 mg Prednisone + Pentasa.

Have a follow-up appt. with my GI to go over blood test results and discuss future treatments. I think he's planning to put me on Remicadee.

The Prednisone does give me nighttime insomnia, but that just means I sleep in the daytime. No extra energy or increased appetite.

Pretty much since I first got Crohn's (easy to pinpoint in my case, because it was triggered by a mystery bug I picked up in India), i've had serious problems with fatigue, sleepiness, lack of concentration. Sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep. At one point I was only awake maybe 6 hours a day.

I chalked it up to: still recovering, anemia, depression, job stress, jet lag, not enough exercise, Seasonal Affective Disorder, cultural adjustment, impending perimenopause, vitamin deficiency, need more protein, I drank a beer last week...pretty much everything except an alien implant. Been thoroughly tested and totally changed my living situation, tweaked my diet, and there's no evidence that it's any of those. I was getting a bit better, but post-flare, I'm back to Square One.

I'm starting to think that the cause of this sleepy-fatigue and lack of focus might be something called "Crohn's Disease" rather then the other 50 million things I've considered.

Sooo...out of the various long-term maintenance drugs, are there any that might help with energy levels? Or anything that might make it (gulp!) worse?

Short of sending out a memo informing my loved ones that I'm hibernating, I can't see letting this get worse.

Again, I think the GI plans to put me on Remicadee.

Thanks!

 

[nogutsnoglory]

Unfortunately crohn's commonly causes fatigue and it may be your crohn's and other factors so it's hard to pinpoint a single explanation.

The other negative is that most of our meds can and often do cause fatigue as well. BUT sometimes people are so fatigued from the disease and the meds put the disease in check thereby increasing your energy levels. So, basically it's not an exact science but more of an art in trying to treat fatigue.

 

[Goddess]

So far I haven't read about anything that causes fatigue as a major side effect...just don't want to start taking something only to find that I only wake up long enough to feed the cat.

:yfaint:

 

[nogutsnoglory]

Major side effects are the life threatening ones so you won't find fatigue there. Most, if not all IBD meds list fatigue as a side effect though.

 

[Goddess]

: )

My bad...of course. Compared to Lymphoma or whatever, it's hardly worth mentioning. So strike the "major" part of that statement.

But as for quality of life, fatigue sure eats into it.

I should probably rephrase the question: has anyone been on a medication that they felt raised their energy level?

Seeing the doctor tomorrow, and trying to gather some information in case he offers a couple of options.

Thanks!

 

[nogutsnoglory]

The only one that I can think of that potentially raises energy is LDN. Most likely your doctor won't know about or prescribe it but you can find docs who do.

Aside from that most can cause fatigue but weirder things have happened and everyone responds differently. Good luck.