It hasn't even been a week and I'm already getting antsy. I'm restless mostly because the New York City Marathon is on my mind. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled I'll be back pounding my feet against the pavement sooner than originally planned. However, it's still frustrating to wait it out because my hopes are high. I've been on Pinterest looking at a bunch of workout motivation. It inspired me to incorporate some cross training in with my marathon training once I start training again. I'm excited to feel my body get stronger and my mentality get tougher throughout the next few months.
I went to see my gastro yesterday to talk about medication options. It's a little scary knowing that there aren't a lot of effective treatment options available. The two options my doc recommended were to add 6MP to my treatment while continuing with Cimzia or stopping Cimzia and switching to Remicade.
I was on 6MP for years after I was first diagnosed with Crohn's. Now, looking back I wonder if my parents even knew what 6MP is. I certainly didn't know or care at the time. It's actually a chemo therapy drug. Anti-cancer drugs are pretty common in Crohn's treatment, but I think it's a little harsh. It's really bad for the liver and frequent lab tests need to be done to monitor its affect on the kidneys and liver. There is also a higher risk of lymphoma when taking Cimzia with 6MP than other options. Isn't that ironic? My first treatment strategy was to exhaust all of my options with Cimzia before stopping it. Once you stop a biologic like Cimzia, you can't go back on it because your body will build antibodies against it and reject it. I just don't think it makes sense to keep moving forward with Cimzia because it hasn't been very effective for a while now. Most of the medication options are frightening, but 6MP is a little scarier than other options in my opinion.
That leaves me with Remicade, which is an infusion I can't administer myself. I'm told this is a more potent treatment for Crohn's and most patients see better results with it than with Cimzia. Remicade is a TNF blocker like Cimzia with similar risks. It's way more expensive than Cimzia, so I'm in the process of figuring out if my insurance will cover it before I can make the switch. Thankfully, I have a nurse advocate helping me figure it all out. I'm surprisingly excited at the possibility of bidding Cimzia farewell.
In other news, Ticketmaster finally released my tickets to Halsey on July 6th at the CFE Arena! I'm super stoked about that.
