I have a lot to be thankful for this week.

David’s six month contract with his company here in New Jersey ended Friday, and they told him he will start as a permanent employee on Monday. Although I’d love to be going back to Texas, I am very grateful God has provided David with this employment.

We also received word from Abbott Patient Financial Assistance that David has been approved for another year of free Humira due to our extraordinary medical expenses. I assumed we would be approved again this year, but it was still a huge relief to get the phone call. You may recall that when Humira was first prescribed, we found out that many health insurance companies (including ours) don’t cover or only slightly discount TNF inhibitors. We cannot afford to purchase it for $1,500 a month.

Unfortunately, the New Jersey rheumatologist wrote the script for a 90 day supply instead of a 12 month supply, and he got the injection frequency wrong. As if we weren’t looking for a new rheumatologist anyway.

Today, David was able to go to a men’s prayer breakfast at church, and then he went for an acupuncture treatment. It must have been a really good treatment, because a few minutes ago, he picked me and spun me around while I screamed, “Stop! You’ll hurt your back! I want to go to church tomorrow!” He seems to be having a really good day.

Praise God for his providence.

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David is going to begin taking his Humira injections every 10 days instead of every 14. The rheumatologist thinks this will help David feel better. Right now he’s not having the arthritis flares that make him bedridden for days at a time, but he’s still in a lot of pain and unable to do very much. We’re seeing signs of remission. We’re just not quite there, yet.

I called the Humira Financial Assistance Program yesterday and they were so helpful. They said that it was no problem. They told me to have the rheumatologist’s office call Humira to give a verbal prescription (I’d never heard of that before.), and then I should call back and schedule a supplemental shipment.

It was so simple. The whole phone call, including pressing 5 for Humira and working my way through the directory took less than two minutes. After all it took to get the Humira, it seemed too easy that they would just say, “No problem.” When I hung up the phone, I bounced around the house saying, “Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!”

The nurse at the rheumatologist’s office has me a little bit worried. She isn’t the nurse I’ve dealt with in the past, and she asked me twice “What pharmacy am I faxing this to?” I’ll find out this afternoon if she understood that the drug manufacturer provides David with his injections and if she gave them the verbal prescription.

I’m not sure how David is going to handle giving himself the shots every 10 days. Things have been much better since that one night where he pulled the injection out too soon. Now he’s able to do it quickly, without it becoming a big deal. I just keep my hand over his so that he doesn’t jerk away. If he makes any worrisome comments before hand I just remind him that he can go to my parents’ house and have them give him the injection. I can’t handle stress!

I’m fairly certain that David will be okay, though. We got off track with his last injection. He has been taking the injections every other Thursday. We forgot about one until Friday night, and we were so tired, we knew it would be too difficult (i.e. we’d end up yelling at each other) to do that night, so Saturday morning as I was dropping him off at a friend’s house, we did the injection in the car. If he is to the point where he can give himself the injections in the car, surely he’ll be okay with the new schedule. Right?

Still no job offers, although David continues to have frequent phone interviews and head hunters and contracting companies call him daily. We’re trying to decide if we should pay for Cobra or get an independent policy with better coverage. They’re the same price, so I imagine that we’ll get an independent policy.

Thank you all so much for your prayers.

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Thank God! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! God is good! Happy Day!

DAVID HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR THE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE DRUG MANUFACTURER!

He’ll take his first injection next Thursday. He is approved for free Humira for a year!

We are so thankful and excited. It could take up to six months for the Humira to start working, and there aren’t really any guarantees that it will put his arthritis in remission, but woo hoo! He’s finally getting the medication the doctors have been prescribing for almost a year!

I was in Cracker Barrel, or as Brother #3 used to call it, Crack in the Barrel, with my mother when I got the voicemail message they left on my cell phone. I was jumping up and down in my chair, trying to call them back as fast as I could yelling at my mother to call David. We were so happy! Mom bought an entire Coca-Cola cake to celebrate!

Thank you all so very much for your prayers and encouragement. We may still have some hard times ahead of us, but this is a major victory for us.

Thank you God!

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We’re big fans of David’s new rheumatologist, hereafter referred to as Dr. Nice. He and his staff are wonderful! We get in and out in 45 minutes instead of four hours at the old rheumatologist’s office.

Today David saw Dr. Nice and they discussed the anti-inflammatory, Celebrex, that David has been taking for two months. David told him that it’s helping so much more than Naproxen was, but it’s $225 a month. Dr. Nice wrote a prescription for a different, generic anti-inflammatory drug and told David to see if it helped. He said there’s another generic David can try if that one doesn’t work. We’re so happy to have a doctor that’s willing to work with us!

I asked Dr. Nice if he thought we could get a handicap parking permit. He said sure.

I said, “Great! That will make my life so much easier. I won’t have to drop David off at the front of buildings and go park.”

“You drop him off?” he asked.

“Yeah, and she drives me everywhere. I hardly ever drive anymore,” David told him.

“It hurts to drive?” Dr. Nice asked.

“Yes,” David answered.

“Wow, you’re in bad shape!” Dr. Nice said.

This little exchange cracked me up. I just thought it was hilarious that he’d give us a permit without understanding why we wanted it. It’s funny that this doctor asks so many more questions than the old rheumy, and yet he was amazed that David can’t drive.

I shouldn’t be surprised. This happens often. People don’t understand how bad the arthritis is until they hear multiple examples of things David cannot do.

After the nurse finished the doctor’s office’s portion of the Humira financial assistance paperwork, I asked her if she’d fax all our paperwork in.

“No, they’ll want the originals. You’ll have to mail them in,” she told me.

I understood. I wouldn’t have wanted to send a fifty page fax either. But I knew I’d have to find a copy store on the way home and pay to fax in the paperwork. If they needed originals after they’d seen the fax, they could tell me and I’d mail them, but we need to this financial assistance ASAP.

The nurse and the receptionist couldn’t believe Humira was going to cost $1,000 a month.

“Didn’t you get one of the Humira discount cards?”

“Yes, that’s why it’s only $1,000 a month. The discount card got us $500 off a month,” we explained.

“With your insurance it’s $1,500 a month?” they asked.

“Yes.”

“Why don’t I go ahead and fax them that paperwork. At least they can get started on the financial assistance!”

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A representative from My Humira Financial Assistance contacted me last Friday. She wondered why David hadn’t started taking Humira since they’d issued his discount card for $500 off a month for 12 months. My first thought was, “Well, now we know why Humira retails for $2,200 a month. They have employees who sit around keeping tabs on us.”

The My Humira rep re-verified our health insurance benefits after I explained that with the $500 discount card, we’d still have to pay $1,000 a month, and we can’t afford that. A few days later, she contacted me and explained that we make too much money for their financial assistance program, but they might be able to make an exception if we have enough medical expenses. They think they can get David the Humira for free since our insurance doesn’t cover it.

Today I contacted our pharmacy and all of our doctors and asked them to send me all of our bills for 2009. The good news is, My Humira considers all household medical expenses, so the thousands of dollars we spent earlier this year replacing my night guard will be part of our total expenses. Our insurance premiums count, too. They didn’t tell us what the magic number is, whether it’s a precentage of our income, or a dollar amount. We’ll just have to include every single thing, and pray that it’s enough.

I’m trying not to get my hopes up. We’ll see what happens. Thanks for your prayers.

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Just a quick update on the Humira Financial Assistance. They were able to get us $500 a month, but $1,000 a month is still to expensive. They gave us information on two foundations that may be able to offer additional assistance. I also spoke with someone from Humira that helps people who don’t have insurance. Since our health insurance doesn’t cover Humira, they’re having us fill out a bunch of paperwork to see if we qualify for assistance. Unfortunately, it sounds like we make too much money. We’ll see what happens. Thank you for your prayers.

Does anyone know of a company in Arizona that needs a computer programmer?

Love,

A Young Wife

P.S. Be sure to cast your vote on” Sould I put this dress in the rummage sale pile?” ! I’ll tally up the votes this weekend and donate or keep the dress on Sunday.

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David was feeling well enough for us to go to a movie Tuesday night! It was so much fun. We felt like normal 20 somethings.

The financial assistance folks at Humira are still working on our insurance information. We should know what kind of assistance we can receive by tomorrow or Monday.

David and I have decided that if David can’t get the Humira, or if he does get it, but he doesn’t feel better quickly, we will have to move to Arizona. Things are so bad. We can’t keep living like this.

David’s grandfather was sent to Arizona when he was diagnosed with arthritis. Of course, he had been living living in Michigan, so pretty much anywhere would have been better than that for arthritis!

We don’t want to leave our family and friends. Maybe we’ll get enough financial assistance, and David will be able to take Humira and feel better immediately.

If he doesn’t, well…we’ll just have to move to Arizona. David’s parents and my parents lived in Arizona for awhile. David has some family in Tucson. And David’s sister just moved back from Phoenix, so we do have some contacts out there.

David’s father and grandfather both graduated from the University of Arizona. Wouldn’t it be funny if David wound up finishing his degree there? David had to stop going to college when his arthritis flared up. It would be so awesome if he was healthy enough to go back to school.

Please pray that we get the Humira and don’t have to move to Arizona. And if it’s not God’s will for us to get the Humira, please pray that God provides for us in Arizona, and that we would have a joyful spirit about our circumstances.

Thanks for reading.

A Young Wife

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