Pancreatitis symptoms from Azathioprine or something else?

[Sunita77]

I was diagnosed with Crohn's last year. I was started off with two rounds of Budesonide. The first round worked but soon as I finished it my symptoms came back. I was told to go on a second round which didn't work at all. I'm currently on Prednisolone and Azathioprine. I have been on both for 5 weeks. I started weaning down on the Prednisolone after two weeks of being on a high dosage . I would say I started to feel better within the week but by week 3. I started to have upper abdominal pain going to my back and in particular on the left side. I have no gallbladder as it was removed 4 years ago.

My trips to the toilet have increased, I have urgency and pain after a bowel movement. The smell is horrendous and I have a niggling pain as described above. I had my third blood test for Azathioprine . Everything came back fine apart from high neutrophils. The IBD nurse thinks I may have an infection or it could be from the steroids. She also mentioned that it is expected when weaning down on steroids. I thought it could be the Azathioprine causing the flare symptoms as I know it can cause Pancreatitis but my liver and kidney functions came back okay. I'm left wondering do I just keep an eye on my symptoms as I don't want then to get worse and wait until I give my stool samples in? Thank you for reading.

[SuzyQ67]

Sorry to read you are struggling. As long as your labs are coming back normal, prednisone is the culprit. When we start reducing the dose often the symptoms return with revenge. What dose did you start with & where are you now? Sometimes changing 5mg can cause terrible problems.

[Sunita77 in reply to SuzyQ67]

SuzyQ67 thank you for replying. Yes, that is what my IBD nurse said that it is expected when you reduce the dosage. I started both on the 1st of February and for the two weeks I was on 40mgs of Prednisolone (8 tablets every day) then on week 4 I was on 6mgs. I'm now back on 35mgs (7 tablets everyday for 2 weeks) then start to reduce by 1 tablet weekly.

The urgency is back, the stools are clay coloured and very smelly. I keep getting pain. I will just keep an eye on it. I really thought it could have been the Azathioprine but I know it takes a while to kick in.