Re: In need of some support!
- From: greyhackles <greyhackles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:41:28 -0500
On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:34:35 GMT, "Grateful Deb"
<grateful.debNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I've been struggling with the HCV treatment for 24 weeks. The side effects
have been difficult to say the least. The treatment caused me to be anemic.
After a long fight with my insurance company, I finally got them to pay for
Procrit which took away the anemia. Now they won't pay for the Procrit and I
am quite discouraged. This medicine is way out of my own price range and I
don't look forward to feeling the way I felt before I got on the Procrit. I
couldn't go up a flight of stair without feeling like I would collapse. I
had no energy at all and I have a 20 month old son with lots of energy. My
doctor just tells me to stick to it - easy for him to say. I really could
use some encouragement. If anyone could help with this or direct me
somewhere, I would be very thankful.
Deb: Sorry to hear you're going through this - I have first hand knowledge of
how difficult the HCV therapy is when severe anemia is added to the effects of
the combo drugs.
I suffered both hemolytic anemia from the Ribavirin and aplastic anemia from
the Peg-Interferon suppressing my bone marrow. Within 8 weeks of initiating
the combo therapy my hemoglobin level went below 9g/dl, and before my doctor
"allowed" me to finally see a hematologist it had gone down to 8.2. The blood
doc took one look at my blood work and immediately whacked me with Epogen, and
I spent the next 35 weeks on the maximum 60KIU weekly dose. Even so, my
hemoglobin level struggled to improve, and never did go back above 10 until
the week after I completed the 48th week on the combo drugs.
Are you aware of the reasoning behind the insurance company's refusal to
continue providing Procrit? My insurance company wouldn't cover it if my
hemoglobin went above 11g/dl (which was moot in my case) and that was almost
four years ago. I have since heard of insurance companies that have a 10g/dl
cut-off: as the result of over-prescription of these ESA drugs for kidney
dialysis patients and chemotherapy patients and some resulting unexpected
mortality rates, insurance companies may have become even more sensitive about
supporting the use of these drugs. You should try to ascertain their
rationale.
There are a few different epoetin alfa drugs on the market today. Along with
Ortho Biotech's Procrit, there is Amgen's Epogen and Aranesp. Amgen has a
patient assistance program that may be able to help you.
See the web page http://www.amgen.com/patients/assistance.html or contact
Amgen's Reimbursement Connection® Hotline: 1-800-272-9376
Otherwise, hang in there as best as you can. Rest when you can, and drink lots
of fluids - it really can make a difference in how you feel.
Good luck, and here's hoping your therapy is successful!
/greyhackles
.
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