Exhausted on azathioprine, anyone else?

[SvC]

Has anyone else suffered with extreme fatigue on azathioprine?

I had surgery 2 months ago and was just getting over the fatigue from this (slow recovery). I started on 50mg per day for a week and then upto 150mg per day (been on for 2 weeks). I've tried taking it at different times of day, it seems to make no difference.

I am completely exhausted. I'm struggling to sleep and then due to this sleeping into the afternoon which means I then can't sleep at a reasonable time, and so the cycle continues. I've forced myself up earlier but I just fall asleep again. I'm off work post surgery but really need to be looking at returning, I can't see how with this level of fatigue though.

My ferritin is low, it always is, but I've definitely felt so much more fatigued since starting azathioprine. It's so bad that I don't want to continue with it. Has anyone else had this and did it improve with time?

 

[Scipio]

Your ferritin is low, which means your iron is low, but what is your hemoglobin? If that has recently declined your increased fatigue could be explained by a drop in hemoglobin to the to point of frank anemia.

 

[Vixx]

I was the same - could barely lift my legs to walk and had a lot of rashes (still do - they seem to be permanent damage) - took myself off it as no-one would listen - saw a consultant eventually who said it had damaged my liver and I'd made a good call - the moral being listen to your body