Hi all. Just wanted to provide an update on my Xifaxan issue. After 3 appeals (2 letters from my doctor and a conference call involving my doctor, a Cigna review team and myself) my prescription was approved for one year. I had heard that the third time is often the charm in these reviews, and luckily that turned out to be the case. Start to finish the whole ordeal lasted about 6 or 7 stressful weeks. But I guess all's well that ends well.
My doctor prescribed Pentasa for me during my Xifaxan hiatus, and it surprisingly worked pretty well. I also continued my daily shots of Pepto Bismal extra strength. I do one shot a day as a maintenance regimen, and two a day when things get rough.
As a side note, I was just prescribed doxycycline for an unrelated issue, and I'm noticing that it's working wonders for my pouchitis. Doxycycline was one of the few antibiotics I hadn't tried for my pouchitis, and it's nice to know that it's another option now if something else becomes ineffective (like Cipro did).