Help choosing meds

[oldcrohn]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the site and have read many of your posts and they've been helpful. I've had CD for over 25 years and knew I was lucky but feel even luckier since landing here. I've never had surgery for CD but recently had to have a full hysterectomy due to adenomyosis. Since my surgery, my CD has been CRAZY. I've always had luck with Flagyl and Prednisone and have been taking Flagyl, Entocort and Abriso without any luck.

Here are my questions if you would be so kind as to provide advice:
..should I have camera capsule test to see what's going on inside?

..after test, should I try Prednisone again even though I've been taking
Entocort and hate Prednisone sooo much? If Entocort isn't working, will Prednisone work?

...should I try 6MP or Humira and these other more serious drugs instead of Prednisone? Please help

 

[Jennifer]

I take 6MP myself and its kept my Crohn's at bay for over 10 years. Haven't had to take Prednisone since my surgery, haven't had a flare since my surgery but I've always took 6MP as a maintenance drug.

To my knowledge, pill cams are only used when a colonoscopy and an endoscopy don't show where the inflammation is coming and even before the pill cam they would at least do a barium swallow cause you can see the inflammation and sores via x-ray with barium, there's also the good old fashioned CT scan.

I've never taken Entrocort so I have no advise there. As far as Prednisone goes, what's your dosage? They can always up the dose unless you're already on the max dose for your body type. Before my surgery I was on 75mg of Prednisone, 65mg of 6MP, 2,000mg of Asacol, and one other steroid that I forget the name and the dose.

As with all medical conditions, it takes a while to find what meds and at what dose works for you, not to mention the combination of them. No one on here will tell you what meds to take but we will all gladly share our experiences with the ones we have taken or what we've learned so far about other medicines from research and from what others have said.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[oldcrohn]

Thanks so much for answering. I know you're not doctors but I have info from them. I wanted to know what people's experiences were with the meds. I've had CD for 25 years and have had flare up through the years that I've been able to battle with flagyl and prednisone. Just have CT scan and colonoscopy that showed CD in Illiem. But my dr. feels that since I have other pain, he want to see what's going on in the small intestine also. What I wondered is with all the side effect of prednisone,would you rather go on 6mp than prednisone? How low a dose are you on for maintenance?

Also, how do people get their history to come up on the bottom of every post? Like yours?

 

[Jennifer]

I take 50mg of 6MP to control my immune system. Prednisone is used during flares and not as a maintenance drug. I've also never been given antibiotics during a flare. Your symptoms decide on what drugs you take to get a flare under control. 6MP is also used during flares just like Prednisone but its not like you can choose to go on one or the other cause it depends on your symptoms and how bad the damage is. I've taken both and they both have their drawbacks but you can't pick and chose one over the other as they both do different things.

With Prednisone, I get fat and basically go mad but my Crohn's seems to go under control after a while and its temporary.

With 6MP, I get sick a lot because it lowers your immune system. You also have to get blood work done every month to make sure it isn't messing with your liver. It hardens my stools and I don't really have any side effects from it (other than catching colds a lot when you first start taking it).

You can see what's going on in the small intestine with a barium swallow called a Small Bowel Series where you drink barium and then they take x-rays of your intestines. I've never had a pill cam done before. My GI always likes to make sure there's no narrowing/blockage where the pill may get stuck by doing a small bowel series instead.

As far as your signature goes which you see I have my history as my signature:

- Go to the top of the screen and click on "User CP" on the left in the blue bar.
- On the left under "Settings and Options" click on "Edit Signature"
- Enter in your information, you can Preview it if you like by clicking on the "Preview Signature" button at the bottom of the screen.
- Once you've finished, click "Save Signature."