Just my personal opinion, but I feel much better from the Acthar Gel than the solumedrol. When I did Solumedrol last month, I crashed hard. I was unable to drive, was very emotional, and I was beyond tired. Not only that, but I feel it made me weaker and did not help my symptoms. My new neurologist suggested Acthar Gel. I'm just coming off of it, so of course, I'm tired, but I don't feel as weak and actually feel better than I did prior to receiving it. Does anyone know how soon it wears off? I know steroids do not alter the course of MS, but it's nice to feel a little more "normal" than I did prior to treatment. Why don't doctors prescribe this more often? Not only that, but the Solumedrol is a pain to get administered, having an IV in for a week. One quick injection and you're done for the day with Acthar. Anyone had great results from this drug?
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Some of them just don't know about it. The other reason is that it costs about $30,000Originally posted by Dreams008 View Post
per vial and a lot of insurance companies won't pay for it. I'm right now waiting to see if my insurance will pay for it. Solu-Medrol is not quite dirt cheap but almost and even with a nurse having to give the IV's it's so much cheaper. Prednisone pretty much is dirt cheap even at high doses so some doctors are changing to that instead. I've done the high dose prednisone and the side effects are much worse for me than IV's. I'm hoping my insurance will OK the Acthar because I'm really getting tired of the side effects of the steroids if you know what I mean. 
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Yeah, I had very little luck with the 5 day Solumedrol. So far, aside from being exhausted, I feel the Acthar Gel worked better. I have more stability in my legs. It's not perfect, but much better than it was prior to treatment. I could barely walk without a very noticeable limp. Now, my walking seems a bit more fluid and I noticed last night I'm able to do a few more exercises without tiring out. Don't get me wrong, I am still very fatigued from the treatment and I feel like sleeping while at work, but I'll pay the price of being tired if my legs work Hope your insurance covers it. Mine was approved in less than a day and I ended up paying nothing.
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I just saw my doctor and he's still not sold on Acthar for me. He did some research and one thing he found out that he doesn't like is that Acthar takes longer to work than Solu-Medrol does. For me he thinks the speed of the relief is important. So he still prefers Solu-Medrol as long as its still working for me. If it stops working then he says we'll talk about Acthar. I'm so glad it worked for you.
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