Search results

Iggie, I've had Crohn's for 34 years, starting with an emergency ileostomy before most docs knew about Crohns. I was reconnected six months later. For the most part since then I've been able to control it on Pentasa and a few other things. Had several strictures 5 or 6 years ago and was moved to...

A woman's husband Joe died and she took his best suit down to the undertaker. When Joe was dressed for the funeral, she thought it looked shabby next to the blue striped suit on the gentleman in the casket alongside. She decided to go out and buy Joe a new outfit. She was almost to her car...

I've had two strictures in the past six years and was hospitalized 3 days for each. Originally thought to be blockages, my GI instead both times drained my stomach and used steroids to calm the inflammation down. Both times it occurred at the site of my ileostomy 34 years ago. As a result of...

11/22/63 was Stephen King's book about Kennedy. Its a time travel story trying to prevent the assassination and it's very well done. A better book about it was The Third Bullet by Stephen Hunter about a fictional ballistics expert's investigation into it. Hunter's book has the same character as...

Thanks, Ron and thanks, George. I guess we will all benefit this fall when the patent runs out on Humira. The Chicago Tribune said several months ago that companies were lining up with generic versions to take advantage of Humira's great popularity.

I've been wanting to retire but I can't because of the cost of Humira ($4000 monthly currently covered by my work insurance). Medicare & supplement only covers partially. My GI says he would move me to Remicade which is entirely covered (because its infused in a hospital). But that if I...

I had only minor skin problems for many years on Pentasa. After a couple of strictures I moved to Humira and have had moderate to severe skin problems in the almost three years since. Doc put me on Azathioprine too, but my arms broke out so bad I had to go into his office without an...

Hi Lisat... I had some skin problems occasionally before Humira, and my primary put me on what must have been steroid creams. Having had Crohns for so long with few problems, my GI started saying gut problems contribute to skin problems. The steroid worked. Humira really turned it on again, and...

I am currently using that $5 copay plan and it's great. I assumed that it wouldn't transfer to Medicare, but I haven't actually researched it. Meanwhile my GI guy and his nurse both assure me that they have patients on Medicare who get the copay taken care of by Abbvie, the maker of Humira...

I was given two alternatives, my thighs or my stomach. Both seemed bad news to me at first, but I found using my stomach was much less painful. It stings a bit, but you get used to it. I've never used the ice trick on my skin, nor have I taken the Humira out of the refrigerator several hours...

Nature is an unforgiving place, and if we are all just accidents of evolution, chemicals in a soup, there would be no morality or love. Do tsunamis or storms or falling trees care what they hit? Is there right or wrong for earthquakes or tornadoes? But there's beauty all around us...

Really? No one told me to take Humira out of the refrigerator early. Injecting it hurts a bit, but I don't notice it making me tired or giving me a headache. It's given me a pesky case of very itchy eczema.

Learning how to get around this place; thanks for your reply, pottytime. My GI says he will fill out forms for me as well. He says he has other retirees on Humira, and that I shouldn't sweat this so much. I'm just nervous about making such a big leap on such an expensive medicine. Doc says to...

Anyone still here? It looks like the last reply was in 2009?? I wanted to ask if anyone in the Humira support group had applied to Abbvie (maker of Humira) for their financial aid. My doctor is recommending them as I get ready to retire, but I want to hear details from somebody who's done it...

Boy, roxymusic, maybe we can help each other going into this no-man's land of big money drugs. Wait until you talk to Medicare, or a broker, or Senior Advantage. It's scary, because Medicare has serious limits and of course our biologics blow through those gates pretty quickly. I've been using...

Probiotics are supposed to be all good, helping your gut and your immune system. How can you only handle so much, and such a small amount??

It depends on whether they are doing anything for you. I used a lot of them before, but I now use a product called VSL #3 specifically made for irritable bowel and ulcerative colitis. It's described on its own website (vsl3.com). I know 3 crohn's people using it, myself included, and none of us...

Jim--thanks for posting. It reminds us Crohn's is sometimes a bother, and sometimes a tiger, as my first gastro doc described it. Briefly, my history involves emergency surgery with an abscess, a later reconnect, and then almost 30 years on azulfadine and eventually Pentasa. A while back I had...

I guess I'm asking: what's the life span of these biologics? I've seen many accounts here and on other forums where somebody's on Remicade and they have to get off in two years for one reason or another. Somebody else is on Humira and it doesn't work. Cimzia works for one person and not for the...

I've had Crohn's for decades, I'm on Humira, and I'm trying to retire, but the cost of my Humira is stopping me. One GI suggests I stay on it as long as possible and eat the side effects and the prohibitive cost. There's only so many of these biologics, he says, and you might have problems with...