Hi Danny-
I am so sorry to hear about your diagnosis. Hopefully getting treatment will vastly improve the quality of your life!
My son was diagnosed with AIH and PSC and was put on azathioprine and prednisone, though not at the same time. The AZ was described as a "steroid sparing" medication, so you might ask about that. However, I wanted to suggest that if you are having side effects of the prednisone, please ask your doctors about oral budesonide instead. It is a little more expensive, but it is well documented to have fewer side effects than prednisone - it certainly was the case for my son. I thought I would mention it because it was a relief for us, and we had to ask the doctors for it. Ask for a bone scan now to get a baseline. I wish we had.
The other piece of advice I have is to take it easy on yourself. This is a lot to digest, and there is a lot of information out there. Take your time, ask for support from your family and friends, be kind to yourself as you digest this. Do you have an individual who can help you collect information and start your binder of records? And attend doctor appointments with you? I would think it would be very helpful to have another set of ears in the room. Even as the mom of a patient, it took me a while to come to terms with this diagnosis, and I think I was too hard on myself. One of my friends who's dealing with a different rare diagnosis told me that she gave herself a year - somehow that helped me a lot when I was feeling angry at myself for my emotions.
Also, do check out the PSC Partners for a Cure website and think about attending their annual conference if that's a possibility for you. We went last year for the first time and will go again.
There are some interesting medications in trial now, and please do read up on the vancomycin protocol. The evidence is still being collected on vanco in adults, but it does seem to offer some real hope in slowing PSC. You can find links and discussion on vanco on these boards.
Others will offer ideas on the itching - we haven't dealt with that symptom yet.
And also about time to transplant, when my son was first diagnosed I saw some numbers that made me cry. Way too few years. However, there was a recent study of PSC in, I think, the Netherlands, which had a very large population study and the time to transplant is now much longer - I think on average about 21.3 years, so hopefully the currently available treatment options are extending, and hopefully, the ongoing research and new protocols will extend this even further. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23775876
Take care and don't hesitate to reach out for information or support. I am sorry you need to be here, but glad that you found us.