Recently I learned that my health insurance plan no longer covered the regular prescription for Humira. I had tried to place an order for Humira and on the day it was supposed to be delivered, the order got canceled. Initially I had called Accredo to ask them why the order was canceled. Accredo had mentioned that they had heard that one of the potential reasons could have been that Humira went to the generic form and I would have to reorder it. Luckily I had an appointment with my GI that week so saw him and he wrote a prescription for the generic form of Humira. This then led me on a journey for the next couple of weeks calling Blue Cross Blue Shield and Accredo every day to ensure that I would receive my medication. Typically I would have 3 Humira pens left however I did not want to be in a situation that I would only be left with one or no pens. When I talked to Blue Cross Blue Shield they had identified part of the problem was my doctor had to submit a prescription for the generic Humira. At first Blue Cross Blue Shield said that they had the wrong product number for Humira, but eventually were able to straighten that out. The next step in the process was getting the prior authorization which I ended up expediting as the general preauthorization process could take up to five to seven business days. After the prior authorization a pharmacist then has to review the prescription to make sure everything is okay. I was also able to expedite that as well, to only take a couple of days. A couple of Fridays ago I had checked the Accredo website and it said my Humira was ready to order and I was so happy and felt 10 times better that day! At one point I got emotional for worrying about if I didn't get my medication and ending up flaring and in the hospital. Now I have the generic version of Humira (Cyltezo) And really don't have any concerns about taking drug, given that it is almost biologically the same as the regular Humira.
Humira in my mind has been a wonder drug. I remember, years ago, watching a YouTube video of a man who had Crohn's disease, who took Humira and explained that his stabbing pain completely went away even when he ate potato chips. At the time I was watching this I thought that was too good to be true. I started Humira back on June 6, 2012 and still remember a nurse coming to our house to show me how to inject myself. If I recall I initially started out with a dose and then took the drug every other week. I rarely had any issues with Humira in terms of both the drug and never had any side effects from the drug as well. the only time I had to escalate my dosage (to every week) and then was when I had C difficile back in 2013.
Previously, I had posted about my progress with Humira at different points in time on this blog. Here I posted when I started Humira, here I posted the 3 month period, 5 months here, 7 months here, 2 year mark here, and 10 years here and when I switched to taking Humira every week here (back in June 2013) and then by November 2013 was back to taking Humira every other week. What is crazy is I remember like it was yesterday in May 2012 when I was living at home with my parents and throwing up and constantly going to the bathroom and not having solid bowel movements. At the time I remember keeping the TV in my bedroom on and watching Nick and Night to try to take my mind off my health situation. Those were truly the dark days for sure.
Over the years I have not rotated the injection. In the past I had issues with injecting near my stomach site (especially when I was very thin). For me I have found that injecting in my thigh is the easiest as it is fairly stable and did a post about that here.
I am still in amazement what Humira has done for me over this 13 year! I know other people sometimes will try a drug and then fail it. I have been known as was referred to as a super responder. Also, I am lucky that there are so many new drugs available for Crohn's disease that were not even around back in 2012 and always have the luxury of potentially switching to another drug if even dose escalation does not work. I am curious to see what the generic Humira has in store for me and looking to continue to be in remission.
