Kona wanted to make a special holiday appearance in honor of our call to action for the Senate over the 21st Century Cures initiative. I sincerely hope that when I arrive in DC in a few weeks, progress will have been made. There is no time to waste when 30 million Americans depend on Congress to take action.
My blog is a road map of my rare disease journey, starting last year when I decided to take a chance and use Rituxan off label. It is not approved for ITP patients. Why? Because we don’t have enough information and research on ITP to conduct a comprehensive clinical trial. One of my goals for 2016 is to change that. Through my research, I have been able to isolate a population of ITP patients who can and will benefit from use of the drug. Simply put, this drug is a life saver and the people who achieve remission from it enjoy a few years of a fairly normal life. There is absolutely no reason why this should be denied to people like myself.
Tomorrow is December 18th, which happens to be the one year anniversary of my remission. I truly believe this gift was bestowed upon me to give me a chance to fight for others. I have lost a few friends in the past year to ITP, it doesn’t get any easier and it makes me realize just how fortunate I am.
I’ve spent the last 365 building my new normal, now it is time to change medicine.
