Hi from Australia | Arthritis Information

Hi All,

I am a 39 year old Aussie Male with psa. I was diagnosed in 03/2008. It started in my thumbs and has now moved to my right ankle. My RM put me on mtx first but my LFT whent through the roof so he tried a smaller dose and still was affecting my liver. I have beed on humira (adalimumab) that i inject myself every 2 weeks for about 15 months now and it is working well. When My RM took me off mtx he started me on lefunomide as well as humira the 2 drugs are supposed to work together, However my liver diddn't like the lef. as well.

I am feeling about 80% at the moment i easly get tired and after a full day at work I am quite stiff and sore.

Has anyone been told that people with psa have fatty livers?

regards

What I heard was that many of the medications you take to treat the PsA may ultimately evolve to a fatty liver.

For that reason if you're taking a drug such as Methotrexate, drinking is tremendously discouraged.

Yes, lots of fatigue. I'm on MTX and have been for about 17 years.

Hi Sam,

Thanks for oyur reply. If your not in australia i would like to know if you have the same access to the same drugs as we do and how you have to pay for them. does your gov subsidize some of the cost. i pay about /fortnight for humia but the full cost is about 00/fortnight what happens where you are.

I have private insurance through one of my clients who has put me on his payroll as an on-call employee. So my "major medical" insurance under the "prescription drug" section picks up a good percentage of the cost of my drugs. My MTX runs me .00 [USD] a month for 17.5 mg per week. My Celebrex [200 mg twice daily] runs me .00 a month. Depending on the drug, it would cost the patient anywhere between and for a one month supply. The government is not involved in my case. I take a number of drugs as I also have Type 2 Diabetes and Hypothyroidism, so the savings under this arrangement are great. Out of pocket I spend about 0 a month just for drugs; if I had to pay cash for everything I'd probably have to shell out about ,000 a month.

For example, if I had no insurance and had to buy the drugs on my own, my Celebrex would be about 5.

If I was retired and on Medicare I'm sure the federal government would pick up a good percentage of the cost of drugs I would take.

Regardless of what you heard about government run insurance under Obama, it's not taking effect for several years......it will be a nightmare when it does.]

There is a wholesale warehouse in the US called Costco. You can buy electronics, clothes, food and pharmacy items there. Here's the link to the pharmacy section where you can enter the drug name and find out the price:

http://www.costco.com/Pharmacy/frameset.asp?trg=HCFrame.asp&hcban=Banner.asp&hctar=finddrugs.asp&catid=678&fromscript=1&Article=pricing%20information&log=

I tried putting Enbrel and Humira in the search engine for Costco, but it came back with nothing. I suspect - not sure - that refrigerated drugs may not be sold there.

That said, I checked with a friend who takes Humira and she said that it costs out of pocket about ,000 [USD] annually. She doesn't have insurance but told me that the insurance companies don't always approve it. When they do, typically it's about a month.

But you have to remember that we have SOOOOO many different insurance plans in the US that costs vary greatly. Offhand I'd say you're getting a really good deal.

Don't forget - the drugs may be packaged under a totally different name in the US.