Introduction and hello!

[jpxdude]

Hi All,

I thought it was finally time I joined and interacted with you all! I've been lurking around for a little while just picking bits of info, and learning about this disease personally has been a real eye opener!

I was diagnosed with Crohns towards the later half of 2010 after a colonoscopy. 2-3 years prior, I had problems with things like perennial abscesses which I had an op for, and following this, a further op for a fistula.

Shortly after diagnosis, I was started on Pentasa (Masalazine) which I had a really bad reaction to after about a week, major cramping all over my body and back, which I needed to get pumped out of me at the hospital. A few months later, I was trialled on Balsalazide, which is part of the same family of drugs (ASA drugs) and I had exactly the same bad reaction, even worse, as the symptoms for that lasted nearly a week before dissipating, and had to be put on Lanzoprazole to sort out the acid reflux that developed for a couple months afterwards.

Following this, I was trialled on Prednisolone with vitamin D supplements from mid 2011, which I was on twice for 6 week periods. This worked brilliantly but since this is a steroid, cannot be taken for prolonged periods as this causes long lasting damage to the body

Now to the present, I had a further colonscopy at the end of 2011, and my consultant decided to start me on Azathioprine, which I began taking last Wednesday in 175mg doses. I have since been suffering with severe nausea until yesterday, whereby I was advised to split the dose. Since then, I have a feeling thats more like indigestion constantly, but I think I can live with it for now...

Anyway, thats enough about me! I look forward to interacting with everyone here, and hopefully sharing information with you all in our challenges with Crohns. If any of you are interested in seeing how I'm personally dealing with my new Azathioprine medication, please follow my new blog here: azathioprine.blogspot.co.uk

I look forward to catch up with you all soon! :yfaint:

 

[Trysha]

Hello JP
Welcome to the forum.
You have certainly been having a rough time and hopefully things will settle down for you with the Azathioprine.It takes a few months for this to settle in the system and for some can be a real answer for treatment.
There is a meds section on the forum that you may like to visit and I am sure there will be other crohnies along to help with their views.
Feel better soon
Hugs and best wishes
Trysha

 

[CLynn]

Hi JP, and welcome. I am currently on 150 mgs of it, and based on info and advice from here, I started taking mine with supper, then the side effects are mostly while I am asleep.

 

[jpxdude]

Thanks for the warm welcome Trysha and Cheryl! I'll be sure to check out the meds section and share experiences there.

Cheryl - I am currently having 100mg in the morning, and 75mg at dinner time. At the moment I'm finding this a happy medium as the side-effects have subsided somewhat now. When I took the full 175mg in the morning, I found that I was affected for the full 24 hours, and would wake up several times during the night as well.

Maybe it would be worth trying to split to 75mg morning and night for yourself too so that the side effects overnight go away as well

 

[David]

Hey there! It's great to have you here Thank you for joining.

I'm glad to hear that splitting the dose up has helped you somewhat. That's a good trick.

Are you still on the vitamin D out of curiosity? How are your symptoms at present?

I wish you well

 

[jpxdude]

Hi David! Thanks for the welcome

Yeah the dose splitting is working for me really well. As for the Vitamin D, I was only taking those whilst I was on Prenisolone since Pred is known to thin out your bone density... I was taking something called Adcal D3 and I experienced a weird symptom from it where it made my wee cloudy and a little...thick lol.

Symptoms so far now are mild indigestion. I was feeling a little woozy with a slight headache up until now but it seems to have subsided a bit concerned that I have been pretty constipated today though, hoping it will pass tomorrow!

 

[David]

You may want to get your actual vitamin D levels tested. MANY with Crohn's Disease are deficient and can benefit from proper supplementation whether on prednisone or not.