The reason I was not able to do a health update in July is because we were camping for three weeks. (Trailer camping.) That is a good thing. It means I was feeling well enough to venture out into the wilderness with only a camping trailer toilet to rely on. Last year, I was not able to join in on the family camping outing.
For part of the trip, our trailer was parked in a relative's large yard. While there, we slept in the trailer, but tried to avoid using the trailer toilet. When I woke in the morning, I would hurry into the house to use the house bathroom. That worked most of the time, but I did have one time where I didn't quite make it. (Sigh.) Sometimes when I start thinking I am headed towards a more normal life, my colon reminds me, "Not so fast . . ." It happened the morning after we had a delicious home-made chicken dinner with gravy. I've discovered that some gravies are okay for my body, some are not. But I haven't figured out how to tell the difference, yet.
In my last update, I said that my eyes were going kind of funky, and I wondered if it was the prednisone. Since being off the prednisone, my have have gone mostly back to normal, but not all the way.
I have now been on Rinvoq for six and half months. It has brought me to about 80% of where we (the G.I. doctor and I) want me to be. Although not 100%, the Rinvoq has done better than any other medication.
However . . .
As of July 1st, we changed insurance. My new insurance denied the Rinvoq for the same reason my old insurance denied it. (See January 2023 health update.) They want me to try an injection biologic first. So now the appeal process begins. Here's where the "however" comes in . . . I only have a week's worth of Rinvoq left. I seriously doubt an appeal process can be completed in a week. I may have to jump on the prednisone again, depending how long all of this takes.
Stay tuned . . .
Next Update: September 2023, Can You Say Budesonide? (Not Really.)
Previous Update: June 2023 (No July), Maybe . . . Possibly . . . Hoping?
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