ANOTHER illness and azathioprine

[jennywren444]

Hi everyone. I'm feeling pretty miserable. I'm on azathioprine and have got yet another rattly bad cold, sinuses blocked, coughing, gastro problems and woke this morning to my eyes delightfully stuck together in some kind of delightful conjunctivitis type thing. Joy. A huge part of my lupus is pleuritic pain which has never gone into remission and it kind of makes me wonder if it's really worth taking the drug as even though its great in between it makes my lungs more sore when I'm ill. I'm on a prretty high dose - 150mg and I'm 50kg and was thinking about reducing it, at least while I'm ill. Does anyone have any experience of this? Thanks, Jenny x

[T3KAO]

Hi Jenny, I have been on AZT for a month now and have had reoccuring sinus infections since forever!!! My lupus nurse recommended coming off the AZT until finished my course of antibiotics, this seems to have helped although I have sjorens syndrome as well so suffer with dry eyes, nose and mouth so this contributes to sinus probs. Maybe talk to your GP or Lupus nurse about having a break from the AZT.

[twist1]

Hi Jenny, I had the same symptoms for ages especially pleuritic pain, then one day it just went. I was on ATZ for only a little while but it didn't work, tried cyclosporine which stank to high heaven and I had to take 7 horse pill size tablets a nightmare with the stomach problems. They best thing that has worked for me is mycophenolate mofetil it's made a real difference I still get flare up but on the whole they are bearable. Maybe you could see if your a candidate?

[KathinAyrshire]

Have been on AZT for five months now, the skin has cleared but joints still flaring since Christmas Eve. Had a chest infection (think I got it in the surgery!) and gp took me off AZT for 10 days of antibiotics. After three days felt the lack of AZT but on resumption all was well. Try and stop the colds, I use Vicks First Defence, it's expensive £8 or so for a small bottle but I swear by it, my staff come in all the time with colds but I manage to avoid 99 percent of them using First Defence which is available over the counter at the chemists.

Take care

[willow24]

hi jenny, i took azt yrs ago for crohns disease but became intolerant to it. they switched me to mercaptopurine (6mp) which is the same sort of medication, however more people can tolerate 6mp, but its more expensive! (usual story) if you visit - nacc.org.uk/downloads/facts... it will give you more info and you dont need to join or login. im not sure if 6mp works for lupus tho as im new to this, but might be worth discussing with your dr. i agree 150mgs/50kgs is a hefty dose and will increase your risk of side effects especially depleting your white cells which can lead to neutrapaenia, which in itself is serious, so its important to have regular blood tests. both azt and 6mp take a few months to get into your system tho unfortunately. hope this helps