New Member Introduction and First Shot

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself after

quietly listening in on the group for the past couple

weeks. First thank you all for sharing your

experiences. It's been very helpful to see

information on Xolair from some unbiased regular

people. With all the advertising in the

pharmaceuticals market these days, it seems every drug

company would have you believe their drug is the

miracle answer to everything.

As for introductions, I'm Lynn, 34 years old, native

to the Chicago suburbs. I'm married to a wonderful

guy who's very understanding about my health. We'd

like to start a family sometime soon. We're both

computer gamers; it's great to have a shared common

pass-time.

My asthma is moderate, especially compared to what

some of you have to cope with. Mostly my lungs follow

my nose. If my sinuses are healthy, my lungs don't

complain much. If my sinuses get into trouble then I

get into significant lung issues. I've had 2 sinus

surgeries for polyps and in my opinion they really

haven't done much. In both cases, the very first time

I got the smallest hint of a cold I was right back to

square one.

My doc and I think my issue is Allergic Fungal

Sinusitis. At both surgeries, they found significant

fungal infections deep in my sinuses. Seems the

anti-fungals don't work very well in the sinuses so

drainage and airflow are about the only treatment with

any hope of getting rid of the fungus. Seems gross to

me... I can't imagine that if I found a big patch of

fungus under my bathroom sink that any reasonable

person would expect it to go away by opening the

cabinet doors and turning on a fan.

So great, I've got a fungal colony reminiscent of the

Muscinex commercials living behind my cheeks. The fun

part is that I'm allergic to them (and plenty of other

things too). So since I'm allergic, the lining of my

sinuses get all inflamed, make polyps and seal up any

hope for the drainage and airflow. That in turn makes

a great environment for the fungus, they're all happy

and I'm miserable; vicious circle.

My asthma has been getting more reactive to flare ups

in my sinuses. About 2 months ago I was waking up in

the middle of the night with coughing fits so bad it

was making me throw up. About 3-4 weeks ago my doc

mentioned Xolair and said that in 2 other patients who

have allergic fungal sinusitis that it was helpful in

breaking that vicious cycle. It sounds like it may

make the sinuses behave as well, which would be

-wonderful- if it did. I'm so tired of not being able

to taste or smell most of the time.

I also get migraines and I've heard a few people say

that their allergies were a major trigger for their

migraines. I'm lucky that a dose of Imitrex, an ice

pack and an hour nap usually works wonders for me, but

wow would it be a nice fringe benefit if Xolair's

effects helped me get fewer. I'd be interested to

hear if anyone else gets migraines and if you noticed

any difference.

I'm the type that likes to be very educated about my

health issues. I'm really hoping that Xolair works

for me. I've been consciously telling myself not to

" put all my eggs in the Xolair basket " . Once I'd

decided to go ahead with it and found out that my

insurance would cover most of it, I really started

anticipating getting started. I started thinking to

myself how nice it would be to -insert long list of

things here-. I'm hopeful but it's actually been a

wakeup call about how not normal my life has become.

So after all the insurance calls, working with the

pharmacy, docs office, loads of research, etc -- today

was my first shot. I'm on 300mg every 2 weeks. I've

had allergy shots before and this seemed very similar

except that it took a lot longer for the medicine to

go in with the Xolair. There was no beam of light

that magically came and took all my symptoms away;

drat but ya can't blame a gal for dreaming!

It seems I've written more than a simple hello, so

maybe next time I'm tempted to write a lot I'll put a

cliffs note summary up top for those that don't have

much time. I'm looking forward to getting to know you

all better and most of all hoping that sometime soon

I'll be able to tell my experience with Xolair giving

me my life back. Thanks for listening!

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