The types of medication

Hello once again its me!!! Hope all my readers are doing well? I shall tell you at the end of this blog where i am at with the whole waiting for my colonoscopy.

So today i am going to tell you what types of medication that people with crohns may have to take, hopefully explain what they do, how they calm symptoms doing and what side effects could occur whilst on these treatments.

So i'll start off with the initial drugs first of all;

Corticosteroids (Corty-co-stare-iods)

This one is the most likely to be the first type of medication that a person who has been recently diagnosed with Crohns disease, such as myself, i was given a course of steriods that would last over a period of 8 weeks starting with 8 tablets for the first week and then graduly reducing 1 tablet after every 1 week. These types of steriods are commonly known as Prednisolone and Hydrocortisone steriods. The side effects that you could get from this are weight gain, swelling of the face (most commonly known as "moon face"), increase vulnerability of infections due to the tablets lowering your immune system, thinning and weakening of the bones. I have been told by my specialist that i cannot take a course of these tablets anymore due to not being effective enough to tackle my Crohns and also due to a high risk of my bones thinning too much.

Oral 5 -aminosalicylates (am-mee-no-sally-sigh-lates)

This medication is usually added with the corticosteroids, the usual suspects are Azulfidine (As-sul-fi-dine), Asacol (A-sah-coal), Delzicol (Dell-zee-coal), Pentasa (Pen-tey-sa), Lialda (Lee-al-da), Apriso (Ah-pree-so). These drugs help inflammation in the colon but are not helpful if your Crohns is affecting your small instestines. The side effects are nausea, heart burn, diarrhea, vomiting and headaches. These drugs were widely used in the past due to their usefullness and the outcomes of more potent medicines they are beginning to be slowly stopped. I personally have only had Pentasa which were massive tablets that i found hard to swallow, luckily they do make granule form but unfortunately my body got used to them.

Immune System Suppressors

Azathioprine (A-sah-thigh-oh-prine) and Mercaptopurine (Mer-cap-to-pure-ine) are the widely known used immunosurpressants drugs to treat people with IBD. While taking these, you will be monitored by your specialist due to the drug suppressing the white blood cells which in turn, will increase your risk of getting infections. You will also be having routine blood tests to check for any infections. I have only taken Azathioprine with the next drug.

Infliximab (In-flix-e-mab) and Adalimumab (Add-ah-limb-oh-mab) these two drugs are classed as TNF inhibitors which block the tumor necrosis factor, they have recently been classed as a chemo drug due to the way they work similair to chemo drugs. People with severe crohns disease will likely be on these drugs, but before you can take it, you will have to take an x-ray of your lungs to check if you dont have any signs of TB. Myself i have been on and off infliximab and have been on azathioprine whilst on infliximab but had to be taken off due to low white blood cell count. The side effects can be anything from headaches, heartburn, vomiting and more serious side effects like certain cancers and liver and kidney problems but these are really rare. These drugs are administrated through intervenous infusion with the help of a machine to push it through the body as fast as it can.

Methotrexate (Meth-oh-trex-ate) this drug is fairly new and is only used when all the other drugs have been used, this drug is closely monitored due to its side effects like bowel cancer, bone marrow suppressing and scarring of the liver. Funnily enough this drug can also treat cancer.

Well, there are more drugs being introduced to tackle IBD, also various antibiotics are used to treat IBD aswell. B-12 shots are used when your body feels worn down.

As you can see, the medicines itself prove that each different and unique case of Crohns are not the same as the last case, this gives a hard time for researchers to find a cure for everyone who has crohns, the latest update is that they have made a MAP vaccine which while im typing this are in the trial process.

So just a quick update on whats going on with me. Last week i had to go to hospital for an emergency appointment due to more sick days from work, increased pain, being extremelly tired and not really eating much. I didn't get to see my specialist but saw a new doctor (i cant remember her name) who has knowledge on Gastroenterology, she informed me that the colonoscopy showed that my large intestines are ok but where the large and small intestines meet there was signs of inflammation and that my biopsies came back ok, but the poop test i had came back with a malcalprotectine score of over 600 which is very concerning. I informed her of the pains and she has suggested that i have an MRI as i might have a stricture in the small intestine, which is in my previous blogs is where the intestines are narrowing and may casue a blockage.

I will keep you lovely people informed as usual in a months time and i will talk more about the MAP vaccine and how this could be a step closer to end this illness, so stay tuned. :)