Crohn's Disease Support Group

For a brief history, I weaned off Entocort in February while starting Imuran. I'm currently on Pentasa as well. I had a rough first two weeks on Imuran, but now am feeling better, except for the constant aching and swollen hands. My wrists are even sore and I can barely bend my hands in the morning.

I went to my family doc for a recheck of other issues today and spoke to him about this situation. He says that coming off of Entocort after being on them for over 8 months is going to cause lots of achy joints. Has anyone experienced this? I do have arthritis in my family history, but I'm only 36 and didn't expect it so soon. I also know that arthritis can come with Crohn's, but the only new symptoms I have are the hand problems. I've had contstant one sided shoulder and back pain for years. Any help would be appreciated.

Boy do I hear you...I hate to say it..you can have arthritis at any age...I got mine from crohns..and I have the same aches too..in my wrists,,,hands...and just found out it is in my back...Owie...I am sooo

sorry...really..I wish we could give all our pain away but I don't know who would want it..

I think mine will ease when it gets warmer here if it does...and hopefully yours will too..it is not unusual for your arthritis to act up when your crohns is active...or so the GI docs have told me....

Thanks starshine. It just came on so suddenly. In the past I've had specific pain in one finger here or there, but this is definitely symmetrical. I'm hoping it will end sometime soon!

murcgem thats right, you can have arthritis at any age. I did a bone density test just to be on the side of precaution because of steroid use and lo and behold osteo of the lower spine and hips. I'd suggest anyone taking steroids have this test. Also arthritis comes along with crohns. Another autoimmune. Have that in my spine. An x-ray will show that. Ask your Primary care Doctor to do the tests. The sooner you know the sooner you can start taking care of it.I guess we get blindsided by quite a bit with this disease.

Ok you guys, I'm worried now. My right wrist has been a bit swolen and achy for a couple of weeks. It has happened befor with too much computer time but it is really holding on this time. My mother had rhuematoid arthritis so I've been expecting it. But I too was hoping for more time.

murcgem64, my real question is about what you said about entocort. Coming off of it will cause joint pain???? I expect to start weaning off of entocort sometime next month. I guess I should ask my doctor about this.

Peglet at least get it checked out. Thankfully finding all of you has helped me realize alot my Doctor has neglected or "forgot" to tell me what all I could expect having crohns.

Wow, thank you for letting us know this, murcgem64.

I will be talking to my doctor about the fact she failed to mention to me.

Let's see so far I've either experienced or learned about the side effects of Prednison, Remicade, MP6, and now Entocort.

Are there more we should be aware of?

I'm sure all of us are glad we found this forum. I'm still learning so much in such a short while than from the 45 years I've had Crohns.

I had a lot of discussion about this with my Dr because my joint pain wasn't too bad before I went on Prednisilone. I had a couple of painful joints however, when I came off the Pred it was almost every joint and I believe for me anyway the Pred made my joint pain worse.

Post edited by: chrissiejb, at: 03/21/2011 10:57 PM

Peglet, the doctor that I saw yesterday is my family doctor, not my GI. But he did say that he has experience with other patients who take corticosteroids and have experienced worsening joint pain after weaning off. I still haven't found any online information, but I do trust my doc. He actually gives me more info then my GI about medications. If he doesn't know the answer, he gets out a book and looks it up. you should discuss this with your doctor so that you can know ahead of time what to expect.

Most of the posts and questions I have are for things that I feel my doctor should have been telling me and that he should have known. I guess these GI docs just see so many people and they can't remember that we are all scared and worried!