Dec 27 2008
Losing Our Health Insurance
Now that Christmas is over, it’s time for a reality check. I woke up this morning in pain. My hips hurt along with my left hand. My right hand isn’t so bad because my wrist is fused and has been locked up for more than a year already, thank God for small blessings. Oh I don’t think I mentioned that I have Rheumatoid Arthritis . I live with pain every day, but it’s not so bad because I’ve gotten used to it. It’s just that some days are worse than others. Unlike Osteoarthritis , the cold doesn’t really affect it, at least not for me. Today is just “one of those days” I guess. I do take 2 meds to keep the infection that RA is down, thereby lowering the chance of joint damage (too late for my wrist), and heart and other organ damage. There is a misconception about RA, most likely because of the word “arthritis” that is associated with it. RA is actually a blood disease in that too many anti bodies are created in the blood and the antibodies. or white blood cells, attack the joints and some organs in the body. These white blood cells cause an infection like swelling of the joints, thereby causing pain and eventually the joint damage that disfigures the fingers, knees, toes and whatever these little devils decide to attack.
Back on track now, the meds I take are Enbrel , a weekly injection that inhibits the anti bodies, which also lowers the bodies immunity defense, so if you are prone to infection it is not a good idea to use it. I also take a pill called Arava, which also lowers the inflammation caused by RA. The problem here is that Enbrel is VERY expensive, with my insurance I pay only $20.00 per month, but the regular price of it is around $2000.00 per month so due to my husband’s furloughed status with his job our insurance will be ending in February. I am so stressed about this because the pain from the RA had me in a wheel chair before I started taking the Enbrel. I don’t want to be there again, it limits my life so much since I don’t own an wheelchair. When I was incapacitated due to the disease, I could only go places that provided the scooters for grocery shopping. I couldn’t go to the mall at all because the wheel chairs there are not made for someone of my size. My husband would have to push me in a manual chair which had a seat too narrow for my hips and he would be exhausted after just a few minutes because the wheels would rub on the metal plate on the sides of the seats and impede it from rolling easily, not to mention that it got hot on my hips from the friction. I’ve been taking Enbrel for abour 2 years, and was just taking the Arava before that. The Arava worked to get me on my feet again, but there was still quite a bit of pain, with Enbrel, it’s almost like a miracle!
If our health insurance is cut off, how will I get my much needed Enbrel? I also have diabetes, and I take 2 types of insulin, I would have to buy syringes and test strips as well, not a cheap prognosis by any means! And what about my doctor’s appointments, am I supposed to stop seeing my doctor, stop my blood tests to make sure that my liver is not being damaged by the meds I’m taking? I also have a thyroid condition, hyperthyroidism, which is being monitored. This is not even considering my husband’s health conditions. He has heart disease , high blood pressure and diabetes only to mention a few that he also takes expensive medications for!
Yep, I’m a bit stressed. No wonder I hurt today! I think maybe stress should be added to this long list of conditions. Now, I’m not naiive enough to think that I was just unlucky enough to get all these conditions out of the blue. I know that my diabetes is caused by my weight, and maybe (my own theory) my thyroid could have gotten all wacked out by it as well, but the RA, that’s something that could be unrelated. Regardless, why are drugs so expensive?? I wrote to a pharmaceutical company once to ask this very question, and the answer was that what costs so much is not always the ingredients, but the research and testing that goes into it. Also the demand, and the technology to make it. A bunch of BS if you ask me, but I guess the drug companies need to make billions from the insurance companies who pass on the costs to the consumers who can’t afford to take the damn medicine if they dont have insurance, a viscous circle.
I guess I will just get back on my knees (not literally, since it hurts too much!) and do some more praying that my husband goes back to work soon. At least the railroad has let us keep our insurance for this long. Man, life really is a bitch, isn’t it??!
