u/MangoShade

Currently on infliximab, not entirely sure it’s working so this could be a moot point - just opened a letter from Cigna saying they’re not going to be offering individual plans any longer come the first of the new year, and to be 1000% honest with you guys I’m kind of having a breakdown. My G.I. is out of town for another week so it’s not like I can call in the morning and ask what other insurance she accepts so I can plan ahead, but Jesus fuck this is stressing me out more than I would’ve expected.

I need to call her office in the morning anyway to see if another provider can get me a little extra prednisone to carry me through because I fucked up on calculating tapering down after I’d needed to go up after a flare a couple weeks ago, especially now because I can tell this stress is going to fuck with my appetite even worse than wondering why I don’t feel even the tiniest sense of normalcy on Infliximab yet.

If you’ve had to switch insurance in the middle of treatment, how did that go for you? Did it screw up/put a pause in treatment? Did you have to start a different biologic because your new insurance didn’t cover what you’d been taking? If it ends up my Infliximab isn’t doing the trick come a couple more months when it’s officially been six months (that’s how long my doc gave Skyrizi before saying it wasn’t working), should I float the idea of staying on prednisone until I get on a new plan? I’m sorry for ranting and being incoherent here, I just wasn’t expecting this letter or being so completely overwhelmed from reading it. 😭

So despite my question to the community the other day, I decided to jump back into watching the show from as far back as P+ has available - so basically just last September. Like, I know Luna dies and all that, but this scheming little so and so (god, I love her and can’t believe I missed out on this crazy good actress as her storyline was airing) could totally come back as many times as her batshit grandma Sheila has, right? Right??? 😂

A couple weeks, a couple months? Like, I’d like to start at least from the drama of Katie wanting to start up the fashion house so I know that’s probably a good chunk of time, but I’ve been off and on sick lately so it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do to occupy my time while I try to get back to normal. 😅

Because I’ve had my loading doses and my next infusion is at the end of July, but my GI has me tapering off prednisone right now (was on 30mg, went down to 20 and will go from there) and when I tell you I’ve been feeling like shit all day, man oh man. Lots of bathroom trips and up to three vomiting episodes today have occurred, not to mention my hands were just severely cramped for such a long time I wasn’t able to wipe myself until they stopped cramping. 🫠 How do I bring this up to my doctor? Should I give it another day to see if I throw anything else up, like maybe this is just a minor flare? I know I’ve heard six months is usually kind of a minimum before they’ll make a decision whether something’s working or not, but I didn’t have a “flare reaction” like this when I was failing Skyrizi until I was off of prednisone completely. 😭

Inb4 obligatory “we’re all different, we all react differently to different things.”

I know, I get it, I do, but I’m just asking this because I don’t want to burn out on my tried and true safe chicken/rice combo. Despite the fact one parent grew up in Oregon and the other was obsessed with seafood anyway my whole life, I’ve never been able to eat fish. I like shrimp and crab just fine, but never regular fish. I don’t even remember the last time I had either of those tbh, but doing a little bit of research certain kinds of fish like tilapia and cod seem to be easier to digest? I have to try something so once I find a sale I’ll give some small portions a try just in case they do end up triggering my stomach, but is seafood in general something you’ve been okay handling or is it a whole realm of food you’re staying away from?

Before anyone says the obvious, yes, I know, we’re all different. We all react to the biologics differently. I’m just looking for general ideas on what to expect, because to be honest I had my second infusion this last Monday and it’s been off and on nausea ever since that night. I haven’t done or eaten anything new that would typically trigger a response like this (I did have a drink with coconut milk the other day, but when I had that same drink a week or two ago my body definitely didn’t respond this way), hell, I’m on prednisone while we wait to figure out if Infliximab will work and it’s starting to feel like when I’d been off of it while attempting Skyrizi. 🫠

I’ve got ondansetron to get me through the weekend, but if this persists I’m absolutely reaching out to my G.I. on Monday (which will make it a week since the last infusion so likely too long to be having this kind of reaction if everything was copacetic). Did not feel like this one bit after the first infusion, so I’m just looking to see if anyone else felt like this at the start before further appointments got better.