New to Xolair

[Guest guest]

I was diagnosed with asthma about a year or so ago. Since then, I

have been on pulses of Prednisone form time to time. Starting at

60MG and tapering down to nothing in about 2 weeks or so. Each

time, after ending the prednisone the breathing problems always

returned.

I tried Advair and Serevent. These made me cough and have a very

sore throat most of the time. I told my alergist this and she put

me on Flovent and Albuterol. Flovent has serevent in it and I had

to finally quit that. I still take the Albuterol rarely; usually at

night to help calm the wheesing.

During on of my visits with the allergist she indicated that I need

to find some long-acting brochodilator (like Advair) to take because

there was going to be a time when the inhalers would not be

available because of their influence on the Ozone. I settled on

Foradil which I take in the morning and again in the evening. I

also take Singular, Allegra D, Pulmacort, and Zertec.

A year ago in September I had nasal surgery which helped quite a bit

but the doctor visits afterwards leave a lot to be desired.

Since then, I have been taking 10 mg every other day which seemed to

do the trick. It stopped all the wheesing, coughing and shortness of

breath. I really felt like a new man; that is until last July. I

was sitting in front of the allergists office waiting to go in for

an routine exam when my chest started getting a little tight and I

was expeiencing a slight shortness of breath. I waited another 5

minutes or so I would not have to sit very long in the doctors

office. As I sat there the breathing began to get more difficult by

the second. It got to the point where I barely made it into the

office where they gave me a breathing treatment to ease the

tension. After about 15 minutes the doctor entered the room and

told me that I needed to immediatly check into the hospital. I did

and remained there for about 36 hours. While there I was given

steroid shots and breathing treatments every 4 hours. This

expeience really scared me and I don't want that to happen again. It

is a bummer when you can't get enough air to breathe.

This episode resulted in allergist with the recommendation to begin

XOLAIR injections in each arm twice a month (4 viles). The doctor

has now reduced the amount of Prednisone to 7 mg every other day. I

haven't seemed to experience all the problems everyone says they

have experienced weaning of Prednisone. The only drawback I have

noticed is that shortly after reducing the dosage or I have

experienced muscle and joint pain; sometimes making it difficult to

walk.

I thought taking XOLAIR was a good idea because her goal was to

eventually wean me off Prednisone; that is until I looked into the

price of the drug. Due to the fact I will have an out-of-pocket

monthly expense of $800.00 I will likely have to cut back on many

things I have now like getting a second job and cutting back on the

food at the grocery store. As a result, I am definately

contemplating staying on the low doses of Prednisone and dealing

with the consequences if and when they crop up in the future. After

all, I feel good most of the time. If it weren't for the fact that

I am finding it difficult to tolerate the wheezing and the chain

coughing during the night plus the fact that I spend much of the

night sitting in a chair in order to allow my wife and others in the

house to sleep I would definately choose to stay with the

Prednisone. I might add, at this point in time I very seldom use any

inhalers. The Foradil I take every day seems to be working.

What do you think? Am I doing the right thing? Does anyone know of

any foundations that will help finance the drug? Has anyone else

felt this way about taking XOLAIR also? What recommendations do you

have? I need to make a final decison real soon.