I am on the Remistart Program. Go online and get ALL info you can. Your Rheumatologist office should help you with this.....mine did......Remistart actully called me and I got approved for funding up to 8 infusions a year. Not 100% funding but enough to balance out with my insurance. A miracle for me!  They told me this program would last a year and then next year, they would have other programs go on.  Always some kinda help going on with Remistart.  So, I do this now and I filed a form I got from my RA doctors office and sent my Statement of Benefits from my insurance company along with the form to Remistart.  Just waiting to hear back from them.  They are really nice people or they were to me and that really helped because when you have to hang your head and tuck your tail between your legs and ask for help...any help.........and especially financial help (I have a real problem asking...I am stubborn as they come)then it's good when the person on the other end of that phone treats you like people. Good luck and God Bless and keep sharing.  

Sue

8/14/08 11:30am

thank you for the information. I just got off the phone with my RA doctor and they have free Celebrex for me (thank God) and the Remistart app for me to fill out. So I am going there today to get it. I have not had my celebrex in a few days and I am in so much pain. I am going to my Daughters new school today and I am trying so hard to cover my Lupus face and to walk as normal as I can. It is a big school and I hope i can make it through it. Then off to the doctors to pick up my celebrex and I am taking water so I can take it as soon as I get there.

WEll I am off..

Hugs!

Sue

Sue,

I am truly fortunate to have excellent insurance to cover my biologics for the past 2 years.  That has been my motivator to drag myself to my job for the past seven years of this disease even when I was on a walker.  I also noticed that my eye sight had changed, but chalked it up to being over 40.  About 8 months later, I changed primary care doctors and they decided to do bloodwork.  My cholesterol, and Tryglicerides were so high they thought the lab made a mistake and had the test redone. My blood sugar levels were also high and I was diagnoised with diabetes. I nearly fell off the table . . . started taking oral meds and  immediately my eyesight returned to normal.  I felt like an idiot for not alerting my doctor.  The doctor confirmed that they Prednisone that I had been taking for 18 months to control the RA was the culprit.  
So you might want to see you primary care doctor for bloodwork.   I had the terrible back pain (felt like it was broken) too last summer . . . it turned out to be Urinary  Tract Infections (6 to be exact) from high blood sugar levels . . . another thing I didn't know.  I should have gone to nursing school! Take care of yourself!

Angie