Yes, that is a toothbrush in the photo. I’ll explain that in another post. It’s what the kids call an Easter egg.

My overall thesis for my blog has always been that we have more in common than we think, like with cancer and scleroderma. Autoimmune illnesses like scleroderma, and cancer are completely different illnesses; but both used to be death sentences. Many cancer drugs, like methotrexate, are used off-label, improving the lives of countless patients with autoimmune diseases. I am one of those patients.

Methotrexate slows the growth of tumors, cures deadly pregnancy complications like ectopic pregnancies, and slows the progression of deadly autoimmune diseases. Methotrexate has a wider range than Mariah Carey.

Methotrexate isn’t the only drug that can be used for autoimmune illnesses. I was prescribed Ofev in 2022. Ofev is a lung cancer drug now approved by the FDA to treat pulmonary fibrosis. I’ve taken a lot of medications for scleroderma, but this cancer drug is the first to send me games and a journal. Ofev has a program called Open Doors. It’s a patient support program.

I went to Ofev’s website and filled out some online forms. A nurse from Open Doors contacted me. The nurse’s job was to ensure I understood what I was being treated for, and the side effects of my treatment. I was given phone numbers and was told I would be sent some things to help me communicate with my friends and family.

Of course, I will always talk to my doctors and pharmacists first about my treatment. Open Doors does not replace my doctor and pharmacists who manage me directly. This is for information about dealing with side effects and questions about the drug and tracking my reactions to treatment, and oh the schwag!

Remember the Big Pharma schwag from the 1990s? They had the best pens and stress balls. But this time, instead of pens, I was sent a deck of cards with conversation prompts, a journal with positive writing prompts, and material about managing side effects. This is the first time a pharmaceutical company has sent me something helpful to cope with the side effects and provide a source for questions about Ofev itself, and now I have a ton of writing prompts.

I love writing prompts, especially when it comes to writing about my experience. If you’ve read my blog before, you’ve seen that I tie things together. Sometimes I take the whole hayride to get to my point, and writing prompts make the hay ride shorter.

I’ve challenged myself to use the cards to write something once daily for thirty days. I won’t be posting my daily posts from these prompts to leave myself the option to write about “wounds” in this exercise. “Scars” are former “wounds” that have been processed in therapy that I’m comfortable talking about. I’m going to use the hell out of writing prompts.

References
Methotrexate History
Methotrexate in Rheumatoid Arthritis (2013)cancer,