Well, one question about Promacta is answered

One question I always had was whether or not my counts would drop back to sub-5k if I stopped Promacta. Well, they sure did. I had a whopping 4k yesterday. About what I had figured it would be, judging by the bruising and bleeding over the past couple months of no-treatment. Oh well, after 10 years I can always dream about remission I guess......dreaming is free.
I had been taking Promacta since January 2010. It worked very well for me. keeping me in the 40k-50k range on 50mg/day dosage and I only had to get checked twice a year. It was great, until I had to change insurance companies recently. It's probably still great, I just can't afford to buy it now.
Anyway, I'm doing a quick Dex pulse again this week to try and get things above 10k maybe. Love that Dexamethasone....it is so much fun to work on. I'm staring at two computer screens this morning and can't really even focus on one. Had 3 hours sleep last night. Dex is also fun to get at the pharmacy....they tend to argue and tell me, "No one takes that high of dosage.". I suppose 40mgs/day is a little higher than the 4mg they are used to seeing. In fact, they barely had one day's supply (10 pills) on hand for me yesterday! I have to pick up the rest today.
I'll try eking by on Dex pulses until 2013, then maybe I can get Promacta going again. I've got the folks at 'The James' working on it with my new crappy insurance company. We'll see what happens.
At least I have no band gigs scheduled at this time, I hate trying to sing/play while wired on Dex. still have to keep up with my other two jobs though. Whoo-hoo!!
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Sorry to hear all of that, Jack. At least you kept your sense of humor!

If you sing on Dex, do you sound like an auctioneer?

Have your doctor's office contact the makers of Promacta. When I was on Promacta I was able to sign up for assistance through the maker's of it and then only had to pay $25 for a prescription instead of over $100.

Have your doctor's office contact the makers of Promacta. When I was on Promacta I was able to sign up for assistance through the maker's of it and then only had to pay $25 for a prescription instead of over $100.

Thanks....but I think I already mentioned that this was currently in the works.
"I've got the folks at 'The James' working on it with my new crappy insurance company"
'The James' being 'The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (commonly shortened to just James Cancer Hospital, officially abbreviated OSUCCC - James, and colloquially referred to as The James)'

Note, I've been taking Promacta for nearly 3 years (Dx'd with ITP for 10+). I'm somewhat well-versed on alternatives. It was the insurance change which screwed up the works. Getting everyone in synch is time-consuming and frustrating. The insurance folk tell me one thing, tell the hospital another.....I'm just waiting for the foo-fer-ah to get sorted out.
I really don't want charity, I want my insurance company to do it's job in a normal and timely manner. After-all, I pay them quite handsomely for that service.
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I understand what you are going through regarding insurance. I've had fairly good insurance for most of my years. But, next year I go on medicare and have been looking into what they cover. Most of all the plans that I have seen only cover like part of these meds...up to $3000. Then you fall into their "hole". It looks like if you are on Rituxan or any of these meds, the out-of-pocket expense would go up to $10,000 per year.

Looks like if I relapse I, too, will be going back to Dex pulses! And, they do make you a little crazy!

Good luck to you with your insurance.
Dee Dee