Remicade? Remid’oh!

I’ve been on a steroid called Prednisone since, oh, about Thanksgiving to help cool off my Crohn’s disease which has been wildly out of control since a month or two before that. This is pretty standard stuff for people with Crohn’s. While I’m on it I’m doing ok and it does help keep me under control, problem is, it’s not really a good idea to be on steroids for a long period of time. Let’s not even talk about the side effects (”You’re making me angry; you don’t want to see me when I’m angry…Grrr, Mike Smash!” - kind of hard to imagine me 8 feet tall, green and wearing torn purple shorts, but that’d give you an idea of what it’s like on Prednisone).

Recently, it became time for me to slowly step off Pred, dropping from 40mg to 20mg. The day after I dropped down all my symptoms returned. So at a recent doctors visit, I was given the option of trying another, higher dosage of Prednisone, or stepping up to the big guns - Remicade. I chose to try Remicade. These some powerful drugs. It’s given slowly, via IV over a period of about 2-3 hours (bring a book or two, yo’) and there can be some serious, but rare, side effects. It’s an immunosuppressant, so you sneezers and coughers stay the hell away from me. I have to take one treatment next week, another in 2 weeks and another 6 weeks from now, then after that it’s every 8 weeks. The biggest problem? $8000 PER treatment. I talked to my insurance company to find out how much is covered, basically, after my deductible is met, I’m responsible for $1500 per treatment. Still, that’s harsh. For $8000 THEY should supply ME with reading material. I’ve still got to talk to my doctor to find out how long I need to be on it for, but I gather at least a year. So, you know, if anyone knows a rich, divorced/widowed woman who’s looking to pay for sex, could you send her my way? I’d prefer that to “working the corner”, but dammit, I’ll do what it takes. I just don’t know how good I look in heels…