“...the Humira I need to keep my Ankylosing Spondylitis at bay went from $1,800/mo. to $3,000/mo over the same 30 day period.”
As an AS patient myself, how effective is Humira for you? My rheumatologist recommended it for me a couple years ago. He gave me a brochure about it to consider. On every single page of the brochure was the dire warning of possible side effects, TB, cancer, and on and on with all sorts of dreadful side effects. I just couldn’t bring myself to try the medication. I continued NSAID treatment that I had been taking for 20+ years.
I hear you about the warnings @ Humira. I was barely able to turn my head, bend at the waist or turn at the waist when I walked into an A.S. specialists office. The A.S. is also in my knees having turned my cartilage into shag carpeting, and is also in my left hip.
Since A.S. is an inflammation disease, I was also one of the lucky few who's heart had enlarged from it as well.
So I'm a pretty severe case as far as Ankylosing Spondylitis goes.
When the specialist saw me walk into his office he knew right there and then I was one of the more severe cases he'd seen over his 30 years diagnosing and treating the disease. He had my medical history sent to him from my GP and my orthopedic surgeon, along with the blood test showing me being positive for HLA-B27, the genetic marker for Ankylosing Spondylitis.
I was diagnosed at 48 years of age with it. I was suffering from it for about 10 years taking all the NSAIDS, doing physical therapy, working out and doing everything I could to keep the disease at bay. Time ran out for me and the disease caught up to me. By the time I'd gotten to the specialist I'd already made up my mind I had to do something different and Humira was it.
To say it's been a life changing drug for me would be an understatement. I can turn my head easily now. Not quite as far as I should be able to, but pretty close. I can bend at the waist and pick things up off the floor, I can twist, turn and do everything I should be able to at almost 54 years old now.
My lower back hasn't felt this good in years. My knees don't hurt (as much, the cartilage needs to be cleaned up still) and my left hip doesn't ache like hell anymore.
As for all the possible dangers, my specialist says he's been prescribing it for almost 20 years now and hasn't had a single case of cancer or any of the other serious side effects.
I think my risk of my heart exploding without it (since A.S. can enarge one's major organs --- as it did to me) outweighed any of the other potential side effects, at least in my opinion.
I can get on my bike now and pedal 40 miles in a day. I couldn't do that before. Knees, back, neck wouldn't tolerate it. I do just fine now.
That's my experience anyway. If you want to chat, drop me a freepmail and we can hookup on skype or something.