New here... considering Xolair..

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Hi. My name is Misty, I'm 25. I was told to check this group out from

someone on WebMD. Anyways I've always had pretty mild to moderate

Asthma growing up, but since February of this year I've had nothing

but problems. I had Allergy testing and reacted pretty strongly to 18

different things. Mostly Cat hair, dander, etc etc. I started allergy

shots in March but had an anaphylactic reaction and ended up on a

ventilator in ICU on a few weeks ago (Nov 21), so theyre no longer an

option according to my PCP, Allergist and Pulmonologist. Anyways,

I've also go " sinus disease " and diabetes. I've been on Prednisone or

Sodium Medrol constantly since March which is hurting my blood sugars

and the doctors are concerned about the damage the steroids are doing

to my heart and kidneys because of the blood sugars being soo out of

control, reguardless of what we use to try and control them, when I'm

on steroids it's just uncontrollable. I've had 4 hospitalizations

since February for Asthma alone, not counting the two sinus surgeries

I've had to try and fix that.

I'm trying to find out what normal IgE levels and all are. I got a

paper in the mail saying I am a candidate for Xolair and that my IgE

was 136, but the stuff I find about IgE levels have like super high

numbers a lot higher than that. Soo I'm just confused, unless I'm

reading stuff wrong.

All three doctors have mentioned Xolair, but this is the first time

I've had an IgE run. Also how long did it take insurance to approve

it and all? I'm just really concerned because financially we cannot

afford to have a big out of pocket cost right now, because I lost my

job in July because I was unable to perform my duties because of

constant Asthma attacks and what not. And Its been hard finding a new

job because of attacks as well as the fact I've literally had 2-3

appointments a week for the past 2 months it seems.

thanks for any replies, I'm just sooo flustered with all this stuff.

Misty