Headaches and Imuran

[hawkeye]

I have a queston on Imuran side effects. I have been on 75 and 100 mg/day for the better part of 20 years without any noticeable side effects.

However, about a four weeks ago, my dose was increased from 100mg/day to 200 mg/day. Over the past 7-10 days I have gotten a painful headache on three separate occasions (almost like a migraine based on descriptions from others) behind my right eye to the point where my I feel tingling in the area of the headache and a watering eye. Twice the headaches have woken me up at night and once it happened after I arrived at work in the morning.

I took 2-200mg advil gelcaps (supposedly that is a no-no with crohn's although my GI said not to take them daily on a recurring basis and that occasionally was ok) and the headache went away after a 30 to 90 minutes.

Has anybody else had a similar experience either with Imuran or crohn's? I am also on salofalk (2-500 mg tablets 3x a day).

Mark

 

[MysteryLocket]

I've heard imuran can cause headaches, sounds like you got a massive migrane there tho.... if it was me i'd try to talk to the doctor about it, and see if he can do something about it.
I have a headache right now but it's due to a sinus infection.

 

[bwightman]

I noticed when I first started Imuran that I got some pretty nasty headaches. I started at 100mg and would get daily headaches. After a week or so of this, I talked to my doctor and we dropped the Imuran to 50mg for a week, then 75mg for a week, then back up to 100mg. That seemed to take care of the headaches. You might want to see if you can slowly increase the dose from 100mg to 200mg, rather than increasing it all at once.

Good luck!

 

[MapleLeafGirl]

I went up from 100 to 125 about a month ago and have noticed more frequent headaches and eye pain. I agree with bwightman - I think a slower increase on the dosage might be in order. 100 to 200 seems like an awful big jump.

 

[hawkeye]

Thanks for the replies.

I ended up in the ER at 12:30 this morning after being woken up again by a migraine. After a cocktail consisting of a shots of benadryl, toradol, a steroid and a anti-nausea, some blood work (which came back fine) and a reflex/neuro asssessment I grabbed a nap on the gurney and was sent home after the headache subsided.

The doctor was questioning about stress, this could be the trigger as I have been having frequent flareups/blockage symptoms over the past16 months and my GI advises it may be time to look at Humira, remicade or surgery.

Toady I split the 200 mg into 100 mg at breakfast and 100 mg at noon to see if this helps. I checked with the pharmacist and headaches are common (11%?? in the nomograph). Likely calling the GI tomorrow to discuss.

Mark

 

[Nytefyre]

Eek! hawkeye,

Sorry to read about those nasty headaches you've been having. I must confess that now I am a little nervous about getting those headaches as I have just started at 100mgs of Aza. I guess I better get the extra large bottle of acetaminophen!

 

[Zalanicht]

Actually just recently I've been getting them behind my right eye and then to the back.
Nothing a tylenol or two can't take care of though.

 

[hawkeye]

I went down to 100 mg/day today, my GI is out until Tuesday so I left a message about my predicament with his office manager

I'd like to discuss tapering back up to the 200 mg/day in 25 mg steps. I am staying away from the ibuprofen (advil gel caps). The ER doc recommended Tylenol Migraine Relief (500 mg acetaminophen 65 mg caffine) I bought the generic store brand and took it this morning, it helped.

 

[hawkeye]

I thought I posted an update last evening, but it didn't show up.

Went to the clinic yesterday with a horrible cough and sinus congestion, the verdict - Bronchitis so I am on a run of antibotics for 5 days. Now wondering if the headaches were actually the beginnings of a sinus infection that turned into bronchitis.

Heard back from the GI on the issue. Going back to a higher Imuran dose of 75 mg twice/day.

 

[lillygracken]

Imuran

What I was told was that adding colloidal silver to my diet would help any side effects of Imuran. I am not sure as I have not experienced any side effects of the drug and it has been very helpful in my treatment. Anyone done any research on this supplement?

 

[Magic-Crohnie]

Ok read this and thought I'd share my story... Went to doctors with bad shooting pain on left side behind eye. Thought might be due to wisdom tooth which also was painful on left side but had stopped then head pain started. Have been on 150mg azathioprine for about 10 years and recently 175mg for past year. Recent month headaches started.

Also last month I could see intense blue flashing lights when closed my eyes at night and recently see a yellow cloud sometimes in my left eye vision near the bottom. Doctor said go see opthomologist.

However, after reading your rig morol hawkeye I am beginning to think the eye pain is indeed a sinus infection as also my chest feels like it is starting to get infected too. Why can't doctors nip this in the bud!!! I hope it's not bronchitis but going to print this out and bring it back to doctor. Will keep posted.

 

[Magic-Crohnie]

Update went to Accident and emergency bad crohns headache out of breath and heart pounding. Turned out haemoglobin count was dangerously low at 3.3 and had blood transfusion of 6 bags worth to bring it back up to normal (around 12?).

Never miss a blood test again lesson learnt. Still got headache though which is really frustrating! May go back and get that checked if don't subside.


Ps: 3.3 haemoglobin count is about 8 pints of blood and consultant said I could have died if I was not a young healthy person nomally (needed 6 bags of blood transfusion took about 48 hours, boring buy got there in end).

It just trickled / depleted gradually over time due to crohns being crohns apparently. Hope there's not a leak somewhere though doc said endoscopy colonoscopy won't be needed for some reason? Maybe he can tell! Hope he's right! Anyway back to trying to stay healthy. Been extremely lucky of 10 years remission so far. Fingers crossed.

 

[Magic-Crohnie]

Pps: not sure how long it took to loose this much red blood cells for oxygen. May post it here if I ever find out! But headache had been going on for a month prior to all this. Who knows...

 

[Magic-Crohnie]

Oh and sorry hawkeye for writing all this as didn't turn out much to be a bronchitis headache type thing! Maybe I should put this on a different/new thread? I'm new and the above posts are my first ever contributions so your or anybody's advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Magic-Crohnie]

Pppppps lillygracken is banned (post above my lot of posts) and seems to be some sort of colloidal silver advertiser? Take what he says with a pinch of salt maybe!???

 

[mama faith]

I have Crohns and U/C , IBD and a rare liver diease called PSC. I have been suffering from a constant heache for the last month or so located ..top and sides of temples with pain also behind my eye sockets. I havent had Insurance for the last month to go to the Dr. but now I do.. and can see my Primary Dr. and I am wondering if I should ask him if this is Crohns related?? He really doesnt know where to start with me as I am kinda complicated but always gives me the ...I dunno whats causes your pain statement everytime I go....these headaches are really affecting my everyday life and interferring with time with my family? If its is common to get headaches with Crohns ..can anyone tell me?

 

[Magic-Crohnie]

For me it's the first time I got headaches with my Crohn's (had it for over 12 years and now 24 years old) so really don't want to say yes but maybe go straight to A&E (thats what I did) and turned out I was very low on my blood count which was what was probably causing the headaches and flashing lights in my eyes.. I went doctors after a month of headaches 3 times and doc only gave me a non urgent blood test form. If I waited that long I probably would have collapsed. I went straight to A&E the next day and got my steroids and headaches went away.

 

[mama faith]

Please, can you tell me, what is A&E?

 

[Magic-Crohnie]

Accident and emergency is at the hospital where the ambulance takes you. I called them when my headaches got so bad.

 

[robert brown]

My imuran prescription ran out for one week. When I restarted I got the most wicked migraine. I was vomiting. My brain hurt severely.

 

[robert brown]

I have suffered for over 12 years. Diagnosed 2+ years ago. Not really getting any better.