6-mp and status

I was put on 6-mp about a month ago and have been told that it can take up to 6 months for my colitis to start to heal. I am currently on 5 mg of pred and going off of it next week. I am on 4g of Pentasa a day. So starting next week I will be on 75mg 6-mp and 4g of Pentasa a day. I take a multi-vitamin daily.

My doctor went to a conference at Johns Hopkins where they said that some people do not need to be on steroids for 6-mp to work effectively. Is this true? If so, has anyone else heard it? I think the treatment is working because I seem to be going less frequently and there is less blood in the stool.

I've been flaring since early April and been on prednisone since then and that's why I'm tapering off.

Basically, is anyone else on 6-mp and can they offer advice on what they did that has helped them.

Thanks!

Post Edited (Steve11) : 11/6/2007 8:09:16 AM (GMT-7)

I agree with Red. I took Prednisone in the beginning but got off it quickly. (And actually, the taper didn't work. I was still sick but I decided to tough it out and get off the Pred since I'd been on it in years past and didnt' want to take it for too long.) I continued to take DiPentum (a 5-ASA drug) in the beginning. Maybe it was a few months. I was so sick at the time that I doubt it made a difference!

I started to really get better about 8 months after starting the 6mp. I'm still on it, and this is nearly two years later. I'm not immune to flares while I've been on the 6MP but I've never flared as badly as I did before without it. So I think it's raised my baseline, if that makes any sense.

I don't take any other pills with it, which is a dream. I was really tired of taking a billion 5-ASA drugs all day. (I still use canasa and cortifoam when I start to flare.)

One note about 6mp: You really have to keep getting your blood checked often. I'm sure your doctor has told you this. :) My red blood cell count was REALLY low for months but after a year it's now completely normal! Here's what I did that I think helped:
1) took 800-1200 mg Folic acid every day
2) Split my dose of 6mp so that I took half a pill in the morning and half in the evening so that my body could better metabolize it.

I think that 6mp is probably the reason I've been having a good year UC-wise. I know they say it takes a while to kick in and I'm one rare example of it taking longer than 6 months! But it was worth the wait. I nearly gave up after month 6 and I'm glad I didn't.