I did not fail

 I am on a few different facebook pages for Ankylosing Spondylitis. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say, "I failed a biologic".  YOU DID NOT FAIL.  You did absolutely nothing wrong. The medication simply did not work for you. PERIOD. Full stop.  

Rheumatologists, unfortunately do not yet have the tool to be able to KNOW which medication will work with your body.  Literally it's a guessing game.  Depending on your symptoms they are using their knowledge about the different biologics to make an educated best guess. But, it is a GUESS. There is not a way to KNOW which medication your body will respond to.  Unfortunately, biologics also take three to six months to fully work, or not work.  So we have to maintain a positive mindset, believing a medication will work all while being in very real pain. 

The other crazy part of biologics is sometimes our bodies make antibodies against the medications. That can happen in a short period of time ( months) or sometimes years! 

When a medication stops , or never works for you, it's the medication. NOT YOU!

So let's stop saying "I failed" and change our paradigm to "This medication didn't work for me".

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