Crohn's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis Support Group

Well I don't mean to scare you but a few years ago I tried that drug & had a bad reaction & ended up in the hospital w/ pancreatitis from it. I've also tried Remicade, went well for a few doses then had a reaction to that also. Now I take Humira weekly & its been great. Been on it for about a year & 1/2.

The same with me, cause Pancreatitis. Very dangerous drug. Be careful

I was on azathioprine (same thing) had no adverse reactions however it didn't do a thing for me - 3x hospitalized flares whilst on it! Good luck, I have heard of it working for other people :)

I have CD (described as moderate) and was on this for about 7-8 months. This was prescribed to help get me off prednisone as well. I was freaked about taking it (well it is oral chemo, it's a mental thing!), but my doc is great and I trusted him so I took it. I had no adverse reactions to it . At that time I was also on sulfasalazine 1500mg 3xday (still am). I am not sure what other meds you are taking now-- the interactions may cause problems, but your doctors know what you are taking and I imagine they wouldn't give you something that doesn't play nice with your other meds. Based on other comments, I am guessing that effectiveness may depend on the severity of your disease.
Hope this helped!

i am on it now. and it was a failure so we are waiting to get approved for humira. i had no side effects but did not work. i am also on prednisone which is horrible and asacol. i dont think the asacol does anything for me.

Thank you for replying! Questions...Caffy and Brook, how long did it take for you to get this pancreatitis? and what do they do for you when you got this? Also, how did you feel and know that something was wrong.... Amazon...I will only be on the 6MP and predisone. Other then neurontin

Sorry cut off post, heres the rest of it :)

for entrapped nerve from previous surgery) Protonix, Fasomax and the fist full of vitamins I take. But nothing else that has to do with UC. Heck, half the things I take currently are because of what the predisone is doing to me! Thank you Thank you everyone...I want to hear the good and the bad...Thats why I love this place so much!

Dawn, it was not very long after that I got pancreatits. I cant remember specifically b/c it was 10 years ago. Pancreatitis is one of the most painful things to go through. It is 10x worse then kidney stones and child birth in my opinion. But then again, I suppose it does depend on the severity of it. You will know, you would experience severe pain right below your sternum. Also, if you do go on 6mp, ask your doc to monitor your pancreatic enzymes closely. If you are one to have reactions to meds then I would keep a close eye on this drug. Good Luck. Oh-treatment is hospitalization with iv pain meds and no food until healed. i was in the hospital for 3 months, but my case was extremely severe. Not very common. Good Luck!

My episode was also a few years ago. I don't believe it took long for me either to get the pancreatitis. I was in the hospital for about a week total. At one point got a fever of 104. It is extremely painful, have also heard more so than child birth. I was given morphine for the pain like every 2 hours. If you have it you'll know it. It hurts to eat any little thing, makes the pain worse.

Dear Dawn -
My hubby was taking 6MP after he was hospitalized this past July. Prior to being hospitalized he was taking steroids/prednisone in pill form... 20 mg first, then up to 40 mg. Then when hospitalized, he was on the steroid iv drip starting at 60mg then they increased it more. After that didn't work during his hospitalization, he was then given cyclosporine through iv. He was on that until his release from the hospital (5 more days. When released from the hospital he stayed on cyclosporine in pill form for another 2 weeks... THEN his GI dr. said to start taking 6mp (in addition to the cyclosporine.) IN Just 3 days of taking both meds, BOY DID HE FEEL SICK. He was nauseated constantly, hardly able to eat anything, losing weight again.

After staying on 6mp for just about 3 weeks and with the nausea, loss of appetite and still having bloody bms and urgency - he was hospitalized again.

Then, he had his j-pouch surgery & colectomy on 9/10/09.

Sorry for the long comment with all the history -- but basically for my hubby, 6mp did not work well. It simply did not agree with his body. He felt way toooooo sick to continue taking it any longer, PLUS it didn't work. He was also going in once a week or so for blood work/labs... so I think they were doing tests to monitor his liver. At home, we were also monitoring his blood pressure daily... since he has a history of high blood pressure in his fam, and one of the side effects of either cyclosporie or 6mp was high blood pressure.

I hope you're doing okay on 6mp right now... in your situation, you mentioned you're going from prednisone straight over to 6mp...
For my hubby he was on cyclosporine and 6mp, so maybe that combo was what DIDN't work for him...

Of course, everyone reacts differently - so although it didn't work for my hubby, maybe it can work for you. If you have a good amount of trust in your doctors, and if you feel that they are continuing to monitor your labs and blood work for all other possible side effects -- then, let's hope that this will work for you...

-Jen