UC with no health insurance

If you contact the manufacturers by phone many have free or low cost programs for the uninsured and/or unemployed. Many doctors and hospitals have similar programs. You need to be upfront about your financial position and you may be amazed at how nicely everyone responds.
I was unemployed and uninsured when my colon perforated. The hospital covered almost all of the bills for the surgery and hospital stay. Doctors and nurses called around and got me free meds and ostomy supplies until I finally had insurance again.
Please do not be afraid to ask for help. No one treated me like a beggar or made me feel bad about my financial position.

Getting certain Rx from Canada is also an option but you'll need a script just the same. Not all meds are cheap from Canada however but it's worth checking into. Do you have a doctor right now?

Also, some of us don't respond to oral meds if that's any consolation and have found that diet mod. gave us remission that Rx meds never did. Diet mod. (in my case) doesn't mean spending lots more money on food, it means eliminating problem foods such as wheat and other gluten foods along with dairy. Paleo diet is close to what I and others follow and other people choose to follow SCD.

But I always suggest using rectal meds because they work for so many people. If I had to choose which med to keep taking those would be the ones. $90 for a months supply of Canasa (Salofalk in Canada). I don't know the price of generic mesalamine enema but that is a keeper too.

I agree with Gary about looking into doing something about the fact that you were fired due to disability. That aside, please check out the sticky thread called UC resources on the forum main page. There are tons of programs available to help uninsured/under-insured people afford their medication. In my case, I am uninsured and I find ordering from outside the country is less expensive and less problematic for the time being. I have participated in patient assistance programs in the past and they are great but they take time t get involved in and often you need your tax returns and doctor's signature. I don't have time to get all that organized right now.

I agree with Gary as well. That is just wrong to be fired for absences from illness.

Also, where do you live? Some states offer medical insurance. Indiana does and I am on it. State offered insurance through Anthem. It's wonderful! I pay according to what the household brings in each month. 100% coverage. Without it....I don't know.

How often do you get migraines and what do they look like? What medications are you on? Are they helping? What abortive are you using?
Your condition (in terms of work) seems pretty much like me. Mine was same when I was diagnosed with UC and migraine.


Rant, if you would like to read it,
It so pisses me off, there are so many people with migraine here but nobody responds to the post/thread. Migraine is well known comorbidity with IBD but the medical practitioners are not serious about it. If we all can discuss together, we can definitely find what the heck is going on (unscientifically). Everybody seems to be taking different drugs. I am willing to shoot the cause than the symptom. Anyone interested? I am willing to discuss offline too, if thats what it needs.
There is a pretty healthy discussion going on on another thread about NSAID with least GI side effects. I learned so much from those folks. If anybody is interested, http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=989106 (The board is strictly for professionals and does not accept non-professionals. Doesn't give a medical advice.)

http://www.tn.gov/tenncare/members.shtml

Teddtlove, it looks like you have a similar program. See if you qualify & if you do apply asap.

Sorry mate for your troubles, but should I be little blunt? If you want help from us, you need to give us meat i.e. tell us exactly how we could help us.

In the previous post, you told us your troubles, fine, no worries on that front. we do need to vent. At the same time, you did not tell what you are using to control your migraines? A couple of triptans did not work so you left it as it is and suffering that crap? At this moment, you can be classified as a serious migraneur because of the frequency of headaches (and most likely, if you get that classification from a neurologist, disability may not give you the troubles). You are sounding more and more like my copycat (in terms of symptomology). I am not scaring you but I hope your condition is NOT like me. I am on a slippery slope. I am more interested in finding cure of my migraine than UC (absolute honest feeling).

So let me put you this question, what are you doing or taking to avoid migraines? Did you see a neurologist or a headache specialist? GI can say whatever he feels like, thats not his specialty. You are the sufferer so you need to take it on stride (otherwise why the heck, me as a physician, should worry about your other symptoms? ethically not right thinking but I believe, many do think like it.)

If you want to know what drugs could be used for migraine as prophylactic and abortive, download a new patient questionnaire from http://www.montefiore.org/headache-center-resources-new-patient-information. Its 17 page long and on 2 pages, they ask you which drugs have you tried. Research these drugs so that when you go to the neurologist, you know what (s)he is talking about. If you tell them about your insurance situation and the doc is good enough, they will find you best bang for the buck med.

Fcuk the disability. I think they choose the best idiots in town to run that place. Let your attorney handle it. Let us help you on the other front.

When I was in a similar situation, I found a clinical trial for Asacol nearby. I had no insurance, but they gave
me free meds and a colonoscopy for taking a drug I had already had success with. It's something to look into.

If not, I'm sorry, but turmeric and probiotics may help, but they don't put you into remission when you're in a flare. You'll have to see a doctor to get a prescription. I just got an awesome coupon for Apriso where they take up to 80 bucks off of it each time and/or keep your copy at 10 dollars a month. It's still expensive without insurance. Sulfasalazine is cheap, it works, but it has bad side effects. I have an uninsured friend with Crohn's who is investigating the disability track as well. It's interesting, because you both wouldn't be disabled if you had good medical insurance.

I believe the Americans with Disabilities Act covers IBD related illnesses. If so, you might want a lawyer to look over what happened to you at work, not that you should sue them, but if this ex-boss really caused you major issues and he was completely violating your rights, you may have some type of recourse regardless of any agreement you already have with them. Those cases are hard to prove but no person should be picked on or treated differently when they have any type of medical problem. All you were trying to do was work and make a living, EVERYONE has that right, whether ill or not.

Be Well, E...

Somedude said...
I don't think migraines have anything to do with IBD. I've met a few people in real life with UC and Crohns and they don't experience migraines.

I barely get a headache once in a blue moon yet my mothers suffers from frequent migraines ever so often and she doesn't have any IBD.

Also, I'm a guy if that matters. Somehow, I believe migraines are more of a female problem. But I have no data to back it up.

I beg to differ on a few points. Literature clearly points out comorbidity. The medical community is not interested because migraine/headache as whole is one of the most under-reported and under-diagnosed condition. Thanks to many OTC products. When you add conditions like other mental illness or gastrointestinal troubles, the recipe gets very complicated as you can not treat headache with OTC medications (without serious side effects) and only then the migraines are reported (that includes me too. I treated my migraines for a year and half myself before officially being diagnosed to get a Rx medicine for migraine).

When it comes to females, it is indeed true that ~65% migraneuers are women, only because of their homornal cycles. I did not research more that part of migraine so I can not comment. But that does not let us discount that ~35% are males.

Just check the signatures of the members here and you will see how many are migraine sufferers. It will be great if someone could perform an exclusive study connecting migraine and IBD.