Are you tired of my posts about medical shit? Hopefully, someday something non-medical related will happen that inspires me to start typing, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. I am a fat OLD lady and this is my life now.

I take this drug, Promacta, for my ITP (immune thrombocytopenia – basically, an auto immune disease where my body destroys my platelets quicker than my body makes new platelets).

ITP is a rare condition.  I guess I haven’t appreciated how rare it is.

My ITP is not responsive to platelet transfusions (in fact, when I got 2 bags of platelets, my body destroyed ALL of the new platelets, plus more of my own).

My body does not tolerate being on big doses of prednisone.

My insurance won’t pay for immunoglobulin treatments (which I found understandable because the treatments are about $10,000 each and only last about 6 weeks – IF they work.

So now we’re trying Promacta. 

While I have some unpleasant side effects from Promacta, it does seem to be keeping my platelets above 50, which is the current goal. 

Because Promacta is a drug for a rare condition, it is not readily available from just any pharmacy.  I have to get mine from a specialty pharmacy; which, fortunately, is considered an in-network under my insurance. 

I can only get my Promacta in 30 day supplies. 

I thought it was ridiculous that I was being billed $200 each month for this drug.

WTF? 

I thought surely something must be wrong (and go ahead and call me Shirley). 

So I went online and looked at my health insurance’s website.  As you might expect, it took some digging and an appropriate amount of frustration (because why would anything be easy or user-friendly), but I finally found what the drug actually costs.

Over $14,700 for a one-month supply.

Mother of God! 

So why doesn’t my health insurance cover the immunoglobulin treatment – which is cheaper and may be effective for a couple weeks longer than the Promacta?  (Asking for a friend.)

I’ll shut up now, and pay my co-pay for a drug that is a life saver for me; and thank God (TIDBI) that I live a life of privilege and have health insurance.

But I do believe, we should have Medicare for all because otherwise a whole bunch of people are simply fucked (and not in a fun way).