New Biologic

A couple weeks ago I went back for my follow up at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. It was a full day of appointments that all went fairly smooth, the hardest part was driving to the clinic in the falling snow for 15 minutes and then home that night. Bright and early that morning it was confirmed by another surgeon that surgery is needed as nothing else would be able to fix the problems in my feet. This surgeon did say that it would be a good idea for the arthritis to be better controlled to avoid an even larger flair than what's going on now. So, surgery will happen down the road. My plan is to enjoy the summer and the fantastic camping trips that we have planned first! I also had a complete eye exam and work up of my right eye; including a b-scan which is an ultrasound of the eye with the ultrasound wand directly on the eyeball, thank god I'm not able to see out of that eye. Eww! The good news is that the ophthalmologist was confident that the treatment I am currently doing is working well! During my follow-up with my rheumatologist it was determined that I do have seronegative spondyloarthropathies. I will be starting a new biologic soon after I fight my cold off. The new medication is called Xeljanz. The scariest part about this medication to me is that it has only been FDA approved since November 2012, just about 4 months folks. Sometimes I look at it as I'm paying (my insurance I should say is paying, thankfully) about $2440 a month to be a guinea pig. Another nerve racking part for me is to be on this medication I have to cut my Immuran in half, last time I went off this med I ended up in the hospital for five days with a colitis flair. I have kept my colitis under control for about three years now and do NOT want to mess with it as it is a pain in the butt, literally! Supposedly this Xeljanz has been shown to control irritable bowel disorders as well. The reason why I cannot be on both at the full doses is because they are both immunosuppressants. A big positive on this biologic is it does not involve a needle, it is a tablet I take twice a day, no infusions or shots to give myself!! All in all it was a good visit.

So if you follow my blog you would know that my body has a hard time ovulating, such a hard time that it has been over two years. So therefor I have the shortest craziest cycles. Last cycle it was over 28 days, so to me that's awesome. I decided to temp this current cycle to see if I could potentially be ovulating, well it turns out my body still knows how to do what it's supposed to do every month and that is to release an egg!! To many women this is not a big deal, to me this is huge! This means something in my body, probably my hormones, are starting to return to normal. I am beyond ecstatic and pray that my body continues to do what it's supposed to do and that this new medication can help my body feel better overall.