It’s taken me almost a fortnight to learn how to pronounce this drug. It’s a bit of a tongue-twister.
I started on Azathioprine (also known as Imuran) just under a fortnight ago. It is an immunosuppressant often used for people who have had organ transplants. In Crohn’s, it’s considered a “steroid-sparing” drug. The idea is that you treat an acute flare with Prednisolone, then ween off that in favour of Azathiorprine, which will take over (not actually doing much for the first 6 to 8 weeks) and will give you fewer side effects.
Sounds like a plan.
The idea is that you start off small. So starting two Saturdays ago, I took 25mg for 3 days. I was then to take 50 mg for 7 days, then move up to 100 mg after that. Unfortunately, the pharmacy put the wrong directions on the box (it says “Take TWO daily”), and I started on 100mg when I should have moved up to 50mg. I realised that mistake on Christmas Day after swallowing the second tablet, and went back down to 50 mg for the next 5 days. On Tuesday this week I went back up to 100 mg as directed. This coincided with dropping the Prednisolone from 35mg to 30mg the previous Saturday. For the second time. Confused yet? Me too.
All I can say is this. I. Felt. Awful. I mean, really really awful.
It was New Year’s Eve when the dose went up to 100mg. The boyfriend and I actually had a really nice day out and went to see a panto (the first British Panto I’ve ever been too. It was camp! It had Gok Wan! I need to do this every year!) and from the previous food post, you can see that I cooked up a storm. New Year’s Day, it took me until almost 3:30 in the afternoon to even get in the shower, never mind get myself home from the boyfriend’s, where I promptly went back to bed for the rest of the night watching videos (thank you to whoever put Fiddler on the Roof in it's entirety on YouTube). The next day was no better, and I made a decision to cut the Azathioprine back to 50mg yesterday. Something not agreeing with my stomach from New Year’s didn’t help either.
I saw my IBD nurse yesterday and completely lost in the clinic (one part feeling awful, one part Prednisolone meltdown). She said not to take any more and got me an emergency appointment with the consultant this morning.
I didn’t get much sleep last night (Prednisolone strikes again!), and as I laid there thinking about how weird and rubbery my tongue and cheeks felt, thought that if I didn’t know better, I would think I was having an allergic reaction. “But no,” I thought to myself, “when you had the allergic reaction to the Tetracycline, your tongue really did double in size. Can’t be that.” Well, when I got up this morning and looked in the mirror, my eyes had completely swelled up. In fact, so had my whole face. Off to the hospital I go!
I actually saw the dietitian first because she saw me in the waiting room. She came up to have a chat, and then her eyes grew bigger and she promptly got the IBD nurse, who looked somewhat alarmed when she saw me. I told her that I know that yesterday was a teary day, but seriously, my face shouldn’t look like this. “Piriton or A&E for an adrenaline shot?” I asked. “Piriton”. Thank God I carry that everywhere. It lives next to my Ventolin inhaler in my handbag. It took about an hour to kick in, but I started feeling more human then. I can even see my eyes when I look in the mirror now. I would post a photo, but I don’t want identifying photos on this blog. If you google for images under "allergies and facial swelling", you'll get the picture.
The consultant saw me next and went through all of the symptoms I was having, and said “well, some patients get these flu-like symptoms with this drug”. Um, dude, look at my face! This is no “flu-like symptoms”. This is a full blown allergic reaction! “Why don’t we give this drug a rest for a few weeks and go back to it?”, he says. “Um, no. I’m never taking that again.” I said.
Yet another drug to add to the “allergic” category. And believe me, that list just keeps growing and growing. And MedicAlert were very insistent on printing that I was on Azathioprine on my new bracelet, so I’ll need to get another one made. I would resent that if they weren’t a charity.
Back again next week to sort out Plan C.
I started on Azathioprine (also known as Imuran) just under a fortnight ago. It is an immunosuppressant often used for people who have had organ transplants. In Crohn’s, it’s considered a “steroid-sparing” drug. The idea is that you treat an acute flare with Prednisolone, then ween off that in favour of Azathiorprine, which will take over (not actually doing much for the first 6 to 8 weeks) and will give you fewer side effects.
Sounds like a plan.
The idea is that you start off small. So starting two Saturdays ago, I took 25mg for 3 days. I was then to take 50 mg for 7 days, then move up to 100 mg after that. Unfortunately, the pharmacy put the wrong directions on the box (it says “Take TWO daily”), and I started on 100mg when I should have moved up to 50mg. I realised that mistake on Christmas Day after swallowing the second tablet, and went back down to 50 mg for the next 5 days. On Tuesday this week I went back up to 100 mg as directed. This coincided with dropping the Prednisolone from 35mg to 30mg the previous Saturday. For the second time. Confused yet? Me too.
All I can say is this. I. Felt. Awful. I mean, really really awful.
It was New Year’s Eve when the dose went up to 100mg. The boyfriend and I actually had a really nice day out and went to see a panto (the first British Panto I’ve ever been too. It was camp! It had Gok Wan! I need to do this every year!) and from the previous food post, you can see that I cooked up a storm. New Year’s Day, it took me until almost 3:30 in the afternoon to even get in the shower, never mind get myself home from the boyfriend’s, where I promptly went back to bed for the rest of the night watching videos (thank you to whoever put Fiddler on the Roof in it's entirety on YouTube). The next day was no better, and I made a decision to cut the Azathioprine back to 50mg yesterday. Something not agreeing with my stomach from New Year’s didn’t help either.
I saw my IBD nurse yesterday and completely lost in the clinic (one part feeling awful, one part Prednisolone meltdown). She said not to take any more and got me an emergency appointment with the consultant this morning.
I didn’t get much sleep last night (Prednisolone strikes again!), and as I laid there thinking about how weird and rubbery my tongue and cheeks felt, thought that if I didn’t know better, I would think I was having an allergic reaction. “But no,” I thought to myself, “when you had the allergic reaction to the Tetracycline, your tongue really did double in size. Can’t be that.” Well, when I got up this morning and looked in the mirror, my eyes had completely swelled up. In fact, so had my whole face. Off to the hospital I go!
 |
| I sort of looked like the bloke on the right |
The consultant saw me next and went through all of the symptoms I was having, and said “well, some patients get these flu-like symptoms with this drug”. Um, dude, look at my face! This is no “flu-like symptoms”. This is a full blown allergic reaction! “Why don’t we give this drug a rest for a few weeks and go back to it?”, he says. “Um, no. I’m never taking that again.” I said.
Yet another drug to add to the “allergic” category. And believe me, that list just keeps growing and growing. And MedicAlert were very insistent on printing that I was on Azathioprine on my new bracelet, so I’ll need to get another one made. I would resent that if they weren’t a charity.
Back again next week to sort out Plan C.
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