My body ran out of Remicade...

[Jennie CD class of '84]

MY gastro did a trough test and found no Remicade left in my system
after three months. I get the infusion every three months, all I can
afford. Anyway, so he wanted to change me to Humira monthly, but I
cannot afford the co pay each month so he is giving me MORE remicade
for this next infusion. Has anyone ever had that changed?

I don't get reactions to the amount measured for my body weight now
but to increase it has me a bit worried.

Jennie
Crohn's Disease since '84

[Mel]

On Oct 26, 9:15 pm, "Jennie CD class of '84" <jruchi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

A country is either poor or barbaric to maintain a health care system
that forces these types of decisions. I'm assuming those living
outside the US do not have such choices. Good luck.

Mel

[Jennie CD class of '84]

Hi Mel,
Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful just to have a county health
system that allows me to get the remicade infusions.
I am a bit wary of getting more than what is usually prescribed for my
weight. Sure, there is nothing left of it in my system
after three months but the crohn's has been held in check very nicely
with the plan we have been following.... so why
screw around with it?

Has anyone else gotten an increase in Remicade? any ill effects?

thanks for any help, Jennie

[Nann Bell]

On Sun, 1 Nov 2009 18:44:19 -0500, Jennie CD class of '84 wrote
(in message
<58ae199c-9290-4c38...@y32g2000prd.googlegroups.com>):

> Hi Mel,
> Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful just to have a county health
> system that allows me to get the remicade infusions.
> I am a bit wary of getting more than what is usually prescribed for my
> weight. Sure, there is nothing left of it in my system
> after three months but the crohn's has been held in check very nicely
> with the plan we have been following.... so why
> screw around with it?
>
> Has anyone else gotten an increase in Remicade? any ill effects?
>
> thanks for any help, Jennie

hey, I'm new to the crohn's thing, but I've had an autoimmune arthritis for
decades now. Some of my gimp friends are on remicade and their doctors have
increased the mg per kg ratio of their infusions and/or have shortened the
time between infusions when the med begins to be less effective for them. To
my knowledge, none of them who tolerated their original dosages suffered any
ill efects from increasing the amounts or the frequency.

OTOH, if it truly is controlling your crohn's adequately right now, I'd think
it would be better to hold off on changing things until the drug begins to
fail you. Then again, maybe he fears unseen daage is occuring. With GI
stuff, it's not as apparent as it is with joint problems.

I know of no one who goes 3 months, most are on 8 week schedules, some on 6
week schedules. However I understand fully that affording the co-pay can be
a big problem. One of my gimp friends just posted in the arthritis newsgroup
about the Remistart program. You might want to google it. Being that my
hands are really painful right now, I'm just pasting in most of her post
below.

"It's a program to help you pay for your Remicade, regardless of your income.
I tried to apply a few years ago, but since my insurance is through the
federal gov (even though i pay the entire premium my little ol' self), i
couldn't get it. They've since changed the rule and now I can. I usually have
to pay about $550 every six weeks for my Remicade. As you can imagine, that's
been almost as painful as the RA itself! This program will help pay for the
drug portion of the bill, which (I'm looking at the most recent
explantion of benefits) looks like the entire $550. my insurance seems
to cover the rest. Anyhow, Remistart will cover something like 8
infusions or $3200 per year, whichever comes first. I think they pay
about $400 if the bill is $500. I'll learn more as this unfolds, but I
wanted to let you all know about it if your insurance coverage is as
pathetic as mine."

--
Nann
remove the Gator cheer to email me
You can see a lot by just looking --- Yogi Berra

[Jennie CD class of '84]

Remistart will cover something like 8
> infusions or $3200 per year, whichever comes first. I think they pay
> about $400 if the bill is $500.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for that info, Nann,

My biggest problem is that the hospital charges a huge amount
for the medication plus the infusion, like $10K. They probably only
get
about $5K from the insurance but there is more to it than the remicade
itself.

I was glad to read that the Remicade had been increased without ill
results.
He wanted me to go on humira but that would be doing my co-pay of
$360
every month. I am on a fixed income.

Jennie