The last two weeks have been really difficult for me. I have gone back and forth in my head with my options since I found out that Aimovig (Erenumab) failed to get on the PBS in Australia the second time.
I went into my Aimovig trial sceptical knowing that there was no such thing as a magical cure and feeling like frankly all the hype around it may just be getting people’s hopes up to much. To be honest my GP was more excited and hopeful about the trial than I was as she had seen my suffering and was hoping this might make some sort of difference.
What I did like about Aimovig compared to all the other medications I have tried over years was the fact that it was actually designed for people with chronic migraines. It wasn’t another class of drug that had just been seen to have some effect of migraines so thus utilised and uptritated until the side effects and unbearable. This was actually designed for us a normally invisible community. That made me excited!
So I injected myself once a month for 3 months and did I become headache free?
No I didn’t but what I did gain was quality of life back. My pain became less in severity to a level I could function more and ignore it. The frequency of my attacks also decreased. So I literally got days of my life back. My baseline chronic daily headache also decreased in intensity. Overall it was the best outcomes I have had from a treatment.
So fast forward to where we are now and my 3 month free trial has finished and Aimovig has been declined from the PBS for the second time despite being the first specific chronic migraine drug available and I had to make the hard choice whether to continue Aimovig at $850 per/month or try botox again. This decision was made especially hard by the knowledge that Aimovig worked for me.
But when it came down to it and weighing against the knowledge that they have had two unsuccessful PBS applications I can’t afford over 10 grand a year for multiple years. So I had to compromise and choose not the best treatment option available for me due to monetary reasons. Because of money I am knowingly putting myself back in pain again. I strongly believe everyone has the right to the best available healthcare in Australia without having to pay privately for it. We are currently not achieving this for migraines. As June is the month of Migraine awareness hopefully we can shed some light on this unfair issue. Good luck everyone. I hope you have a pain free dayxx