It is the wee hours of the morning and I'm awake because I can't breathe. I have athsma. Have had it since I was a little kid.
Back in the day, I had a big, green oxygen tank in my room. Over the years, the drugs got better and the real estate taken up in my bedroom by the disease was reduced down to a little purple disc inhaler called Advair.
We recently changed insurance plans to one where you pay cash for prescriptions. I learned that my $40 copay (which I actually thought was outrageous) was standing in for a $225 drug for which there is no generic. Consequently, I stopped purchasing the inhaler. Now I'm going through the cheaper rescue inhaler like crazy (which my doctor is soon to get wise to and stop soon). And, it doesn't carry me through the night.
Which brings me to the point of the post...
Something in me resents having to pay $225 a month to breathe. I know pharmeceudical companies spend billions in research and that it takes a lot of cash to earn that back, but really? $225?
I just ordered an herbal formula I've had some success with--but, it too is expensive. $80 a month and you take 6 capsules a day. Still, it beats the alternative...up at 5am on the internet wishing my rescue inhaler would deliver.
Sigh.
2 comments
Amen! Preach it, Sister!
...or...instead of herbs or pharmeceudicals you could become the "bubble girl" - like the "bubble boy" of Seinfeld fame! Only you'd be much much nicer when you played Trivial Pursuit with your visitors...so George Castanza wouldn't have to burst your bubble! (Just don't play 80s Version Trivial Pursuit...you know how I am with 80s games! Sigh.
Post a Comment