Best news since diagnosis:

[drz]

I was diagnosed 10 months ago today. I saw my rheumatologist today and the news was all good. For the first time both inflammation markers were in normal range, just barely but best numbers in past 10 months. Blood work indicates I am tolerating azathioprine well and will continue on the therapaeutic level of 150 mg the experts recommend for me. The plan is to start tapering prednisone again from 10 mg a day by 1 mg every month and see what happens. The lab work along with absence of any strong Wegener's disease symptoms suggest I may have reached a drug induced remission.

[Sangye]

That's fantastic news, drz. I'm so happy for you!

[DEE]

Brilliant news drz

[Jack]

It is always good to hear of people doing well as it gives a little more balance to the reporting of the disease. The forum tends to contain a lot of reports of people having problems which is the reason for them posting, but in fact there is a lot of good news out there too. It is easy to forget that most patients achieve quite a reasonable standard of life. Some near normal!

Hope the progress continues drz.

[Geoff]

I agree totally with Jack's comments. I find it so uplifting to receive good news like this. Thanks for the great news drz and long may it continue!

[NicShaf]

Great news drz! Ditto for the comments above, it is always nice to start the morning off with good news, thanks for the lift in spirits today

[swhenry01]

My 17 year old daughter Megan just started taking azathioprine. Did it cause any side effects for you ??

[Jack]

I think that most get on OK with Aza. I never had any problems with it.

[Daggar]

Good news DRZ... hope to hear more of this!

One question for all of you -- The word "remission" has me confused. Holly's nephrologist told us that after 2 months of treatment she was in what he called "remission". There were no active signs of the disease but there were the tell-tale signs of "damages" from WG. Her ANCA is in the normal range and the c-reactive protein levels have been flatlining at 0 for quite some time now. Yet, the doctors are staying the course with the cyclo and prednisone (oral) and are now giving her extra treatments of the iv metylyprednisolone montly until June. Are these precautionary measures on there part or is there something they're not telling us? And, how do they determine "remission" -- I've never gotten the same answer twice when asking this question.

[Jack]

The subject has been discussed several times on the Forum and it seems that Remission can mean anything you want!
People's understanding of the meaning seems to stretch from "drug and symptom free" all the way through to "taking lots of pills and not really very well, but not showing Wegener's symptoms" (that's me!).