The cost of being Diabetic

So just for fun here are some figures. 

Before health insurance three THREE bottles of Humalog cost 526.90

Before health insurance 300 test strips cost 354.97

I paid $50.00 

This is for every single month of the year!  

So every year I pay $600.00 for these two things and without insurance they would be $10,582.44

Let me restate that $10,582.44

These are not things I can skip or just take whenever I feel like it or have symptoms, its every day.

How does anyone without health insurance SURVIVE? 

Can anyone explain to me how these companies can do this? We need this stuff to survive and yet without insurance there is no way I could afford either of these things. 

This is insanity.  $10,582.44 seriously?  

Where can I get a refund, I would like to return or exchange it for something less expensive, I think I have buyers remorse!  =D 

Medtronic's new pump is out FINALLY!!

For Medtronic pump wearers I know!! THIS IS GREAT NEWS!!! http://www.loop-blog.com/blog/Introducing-the-MiniMed-530G-with-Enlite

Medtronics pump with the new Enlite sensor is out now, with a low threshold suspend mode!  
 

The impending Obama Care on October 1st.....

Watching the news does not make me feel very upbeat about the October 1 deadline.  I have no idea what is going to happen to my health insurance premium with my job nor the premium we pay for my husband and daughter.  I really hope it doesn't go through the roof and put me over the edge of being able to pay for my health insurance!  It is all so scary when you have Diabetes, an insulin pump in one pocket and a dexcom cgm in the other pocket.  I am worried to say the least. I guess time will tell and worry will get me no where, so why worry about what I cant control. I'll try not to worry at least.

We interrupt this moment in life due to Diabetes low blood sugar

Diabetes why must you interrupt my life all. the. time.

My stupid self attempted walking in a 5k fund raiser with my husband and daughter.  I dont know what the heck I was thinking, or why my brain thought I could do it.  I had pretty much no insulin for over 2 hours and started out with a great blood sugar and was even eating glucose tablets the whole time.  None the less my blood sugar crashed, hard.  20 minutes hard.  Yep, had to abort the stupid walk and stand along side the road and watch every SINGLE person walk past us on the return lap. I shouldve eaten something ahead of time and taken no insulin for it, but because the morning turned into chaos I forgot.  I forgot I was Diabetic, yep it happens.  I felt like the biggest idiot in the world, just wanted to crawl in a hole and die.

For the most part I am unable to carry my daughter for extended periods of time because without fail it causes me to go low.  I am so sensitive to insulin that it is annoying.  We are talking 13.6 units of basal insulin total per day.  So carrying my child causes me to go low and I HATE it.  So far I have found no solution to this problem considering she doesn't give me a 30-60 minute warning as to when she is going to cry and need to be held next, so doing a temp basal does me no good. These points in time I wish I was more resistant to insulin.  Carrying her in the grocery store is completely impossible.  Grocery shopping itself makes me go low even with a temp basal ahead of time. Exercise has been impossible since becoming type 1.

Why the heck did I think I could do a 5k walk, man I am an idiot!

Cleaning my house.  No matter what kind of crazy measures I take to keep my blood sugar from dropping, it drops.

Doing yard work.  Again without fail I have found no cure for this problem. 

Maybe I am doing something wrong, I am not sure but I feel like I have tried everything within means.  I mean, I dont want to go around munching on 10 snickers bars while I do yard work to keep my blood sugar up.  Keeping weight off with type 1 is a daily battle, especially with lows.  Some days I could skip meals altogether with the amount of calories I have eaten to keep myself alive.

What in the world do you guys with crazy insulin sensitivity do to keep yourself from going low?  I feel like I just cant win.  Id like to lose some more weight from being pregnant but the battle of lows just makes me say heck with it, its not worth the headache.  

I really wish they would come up with an insulin that works faster and leaves your system faster.  That way if you decided you wanted to go for a run down the street you could and  not worry about a stupid low blood sugar.

I am so sick of low blood sugars.  I am sick of glucose tablets, sick of 15 carb juicy juice apple juice boxes, sick of FRUIT SNACKS YUCK I cannot eat any more ever, sick of shoving food in my mouth so fast I have no time to chew because I feel like I could die at any moment, sick of sweating through my clothes, sick of shaking so bad I look like I am having withdrawal symptoms, sick of that crappy feeling you get when you are low like your heart might jump out of your chest, sick of the headache you get from a low, sick of going low when I am sick with an illness and wanting to puke not EAT, sick of having to eat in general when its the last dang thing I want to do, Diabetes I am just sick of you.

Dexcom has been my saving grace in all of this because it does let me know when I am low if I dont feel it.  Without my Dexcom my lows are crazy low before I feel them and crazy lows for me include eating all things with carbs in my house.  It is NOT a pretty sight.  

How I tape down my Dexcom G4 to get more than 14 days of use!

So I finally took pictures of how I tape down my Dexcom to get two or three weeks of wear each time.

I use Smith and Nephew Opsite Flexifix 2 inch wide roll and have a pattern cut out that I use each time. Is the white C shaped paper looking thing, its cardboard actually.

I cut the rectangle out, then cut the inside of the C shape out from the side with the smaller tape backing pieces. 

Then I cut the edges down to a rounded shape because it stays on me better that way. 

I do a test fit with the sensor I just took off to be sure I cut it out just right.  This is my old sensor, I just took off.

Test fit over old sensor.

Then my husband puts the sensor and tape on me.

I have a picture of it on me standing straight up, it looks wrinkly and leaning over. I find that leaning over and having it put on keeps it on longer because its down when my skin is stretched out. It looks funny when I stand up but it works the best for me and no one is going to see it anyway. I wear my dexcom sensors on my sides/lovehandle area.

 

So I hope this may help one of you Dexcom wearers. If its helped you, please leave me a comment. Its the only way I know that Im actually helping someone out there.

I dont really put my sensors on upside down, my goofy camera on my phone cant make up its mind which way they are suppose to be.




December 2013 will be my second year on the Dexcom CGM and I cannot live without it.  I wear one every single day and now with the G4 I am getting 14 days or more out of every single sensor with none of very few ??? readings.  So far my G4 from December is going strong but I didnt start it up until about February because I had to use up my Seven Plus sensors first.

I get it here: https://www.edgepark.com/shopcatalog/item/5466000040  The image they have posted is wrong, but my insurance covers it from Edgepark.  You can also buy it on Amazon.

Why don't glucose meter companies want to promote their meters by giving them away for free? Can someone explain this to me?

I am just in shock, I look at my calendar and it says 2013 doesn't it? 

In today's "Diabetes world" why in the HECK don't more companies give their meters away to the PEOPLE who use them instead of to the Endo's and doctors offices which tend to hoard them or give them out to only people they know.  It's US, the people spending all our hard earned dollars on this technology, NOT the doctor's offices?!   It's so INSANE!  Not everyone can AFFORD an ENDO!

I called One Touch because a person on a diabetic group I am in really needs extras for her sons and for home and school and guess what, One Touch wont send her them free!  She is going to spend a fortune in test strips and you wont send her the dang meters for free?!  WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ONE TOUCH/LIFESCAN?!  I would tag them on their google plus page, but THEY DONT HAVE ONE!

I was going to give their meter a whirl but screw it, I am mad now.  They dont even offer a DISCOUNT PROGRAM!!  HAHA really?!.  Yep I am pretty sure I am staying with either Bayer or going back to Freestyle Lite, which I love.  I LOVE their Freestyle Promise Program.  It is amazing, free replacement meters, free batteries, free lancing device, and a discount card!

HELLO METER COMPANIES you need to be more like Freestyle.  They are going to rob you blind of your business if you dont jump on the wagon and I will scream it from the hilltops to help them steal your business away!!!  

We need to KEEP AS MUCH MONEY AS WE CAN in our pockets.  Diabetes is expensive as hell to control, especially when you are a hard working citizen and you GET NO ASSISTANCE from the government!

I really just cant believe this, really, its 2013 not one Diabetic should have to PAY for a Glucose Meter.  Not one.  In the years I have had my own personal health insurance policy I have never paid for a glucose meter.  EVER.

Greed at it's finest. Test strips cost a fortune.  Look at how much your insurance policy covers...mine are over $600/mo.  PER MONTH.  PER MONTH $600.00...you cant send a free freakin meter?  That is $7,200 PER YEAR. 

GREED.

So I got my Verio IQ Glucose Meter in the mail yesterday

So I finally got my Verio IQ that comes with the t:slim pump.   I have some concerns and I hope that some of you will voice your opinions on this meter.

1. I dont have strips or an RX for them yet
2. They offer NO discount test strip program like Bayer and Freestyle do = MAJOR downfall for me
3. I have no idea how good this meter performs
4. I am afraid to know what my copay for these strips would be.  I am currently paying $15/mo with the discount program from Bayer and would pay the same for Freestyle
5. My insurance NEVER covers strips under DME so I will ALWAYS have a copay forever and ever and ever and ever

My health care costs make me sick

So I just did the math of the cost of my health care so far this year and I want to be sick, I should not have done the math.

• So far this year my insurance has covered $57,582.00 and the portion we owe is $5800.00

• My childs health care bills so far this year $9700 we owe $1800 

• Premiums for the entire year $11,300 for our family of three. 

• Total expenses $67,282 WOW 

• So far this year we will pay $18,900 without any MORE doctor appointments

• Equal to a mortgage payment of $1575.00

• A 30 year mortgage with a payment of $1575 would buy me a $292,184 house!

•  TWO HUNDRED NINETY TWO THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY FOUR

• A 15 year mortgage with a payment of $1575 would buy me a $194,728 house!

• OK CAN YOU READ THOSE NUMBERS?

• Did I tell you how much I HATE THE HEALTH CARE RIP OFF INDUSTRY!?

How in the HECK is a person suppose to survive with or without health insurance? 

My Diabetes isnt going away, these costs will never stop, ever. 

Granted I wont have a baby every year but the premiums never end, the insulin I need to live will never go away, I will never go off my insulin pump, I will never go off my Dexcom and why should I have to, I shouldn't and I won't.

Tremendous strides in Diabetes treatment!

They are making some tremendous strides in Diabetes treatments! 2017 is the goal for the bionic pancreas to be fda approved! I am looking forward to this glimmer of light in the tunnel of Diabetes for sure! http://diatribe.org/issues/57/learning-curve

This is something that really excites me and I cant even begin to express how wonderful this would be for us all. 

My NUMBER ONE hope is that this is made affordable and insurance companies will cover it.  If the cost goes much higher than a regular insulin pump and you have a 20% copay like I do, a price tag of $10,000 would make me have to pay $2000.00.  Thats a huge amount of money when you are already paying over $11300 a year plus copays for your family to have health insurance at all!  I can't afford my health care coverage as it is now BUT I also cannot go without it!  

The fact that this study uses the t:slim pump says enough to me!  WAY to go TSLIM and your stand on advancing the standard of care for us Diabetics!!  

 

 

  

"Today’s diabetes tech tools need to go to kindergarten and learn how to share" Christel Marchand Aprigliano

This article on DiabeteMine today is great because it is true for all of us with Diabetes.  It features Christel who is a 2013 Patient Voices winner with Diabetes Mine.  Her entry into the contest was about how our Diabetic tools all need to be able to be downloaded and put together so we can see everything in one place. She also has a blog at http://theperfectd.com/


Here is the article. http://www.diabetesmine.com/2013/09/life-lessons-with-patient-voices-winner-christel-aprigliano.html

Hangovers suck

Low blood sugar hangovers suck. Dexcom screamed at me half the afternoon. Wow. I kept going low and I really am not sure why.

Pump needs more tweeking. Changing pumps is fun and exciting but a pain also....more setting tweeks. Yeesh. I wish Diabetes could just stay the same and be predictible. Instead it has to keep changing and hormonal crap we women go through every month is another wrench thrown in. Dont get me wrong I am super excited to be on the latest and greatest pump available and more than excited they are working with Dexcom on a combo pump.

My blood sugar came up then crashed, then came up again then crashed and man I was just wore out. Breathing feels like a work out, walking is a marathon and I just wanted to take a nap after my third low today. I was too busy at work to set a temp basal that and too dumb to remember during my low marathon today.

Sometimes I wonder if my out of the blue lows are my pancreas deciding to toss in some of its own insulin. I just can never put my finger on the cause.

Im ready for the bionic/artificial pancreas now. I guess I can wait four or so years but man oh man do I wish it was here now.

Yep thats my awesome low, spike, low, low spike from heck and now Im dropping. Stupid. Diabeeeetus. 

930 I want to to go to sleep and Im low again. Wow. Give a person a break, Im tired. 

A Dexcom for my dog, that would be sweet!

My good old boy Levi is the smartest dang dog I swear.  He is 12 right, 12 for Boxer that is really old, well for any dog really, it's old.  I take pride in the fact that I have gotten my dog into his ripe old age by spending a fortune on him and buying expensive high grade dog food.  I hate that my dog has Diabetes and that it has to be maintained so different than the human form of the disease.

• It sucks, their blood sugars are not managed like our are, he takes Novolin N which is a whole other battle itself.  I have to totally rethink Insulin when I give him this junk.  I have no idea how real people manage their diabetes with Novolin N and dont eat the same amount of dog food twice a day with no snacking in between.  Really, I  have no idea how any of you out there manage your Diabetes with this stuff.  Jeesh.  

So this dog is so smart that he knows the difference between my insulin bag with my supplies in it vs. his bag, zipper case whatever you wanna call it.  It just amazes me, he is 12.  In human years that is 84, most 84 year old humans wouldnt adapt as fast as he has.  So when this dog is low he will follow me around like I mean with his nose 1 foot away from my leg, non stop, he will wear himself out following me because with a 7 month old baby screaming at me I forget sometimes why this dog is being so annoying!

So Saturday evening Levi is following me everywhere and I am so busy cleaning and doing my normal hyper moving around doing stuff self that I lose my brain I guess and forget why.  Jeesh I am a ding bat sometimes.  So I finally realize, CRAP, he needs his blood sugar checked.  Luckily he was only down to 80 this time and not in the 30-40 range that really scares me.  Dog's blood sugars dont come up as fast as humans because their digestion is much slower, so it is incredibly scary and stressful when he is at 30 for a half hour or more.  Then again last night he was too low to go to bed so I gave him some crackers with karo syrup on them and waited an hour, he was STILL too low so I gave him some more.  Man having a Diabetic dog is really scary, I can only imagine that having a Diabetic child is 100000% scarier.  

• At least with humans you can get a Dexcom for them, if I could get a Dexcom for Levi, you bet your butt I would have a Dexcom on him. Hmmm maybe I should call Dexcom and ask them if they'd let me experiment on him for a Dexcom.  Yeah that's a pipe dream.  Gosh if he had a Dexcom I could do such a better job with his Diabetes, its been such a battle with the highs and crazy lows.  

I can see how people without Diabetes themselves just give up, and thats a horrible thing to say and I love my dog to death and I will fight tooth and nail to get him what he needs, but I can see how it can happen.  Right now I am fighting hard to get some weight back on him and I buying him human cottage cheese for the extra fat and low carbs to help him and its been hard and it weighs on my heart very heavily.  I do think that all things happen for a reason and if Levi had been in someone else's home there is no way they would have done as good of a job as I am doing with his health.  I mean I check my dog's blood sugar, how crazy is that?  Never in my life would I have guessed that my dog would end up Diabetic.  I pray to God he is the only other person in my household to become Diabetic and I thank God every day for each day my dog wakes up.

Health insurance issues just never stop boggeling my mind

So I am online on my health insurance's website looking at my claims.  I do not see the bill for my t:slim pump or three boxes of Dexcom sensors.  Ok, freak out moment, this is a lot of money just hanging out in limbo.   I do NOT want to end up with the bill for this on my lap since my out of pocket expense for all of this was suppose to be $0.00  So I call Edgepark Medical Supplies to see what in the world is going on. 

• My health insurance says they never received the bill?! Wait a minute, WHAT?!

Jeesh so did they not send it or did my insurance really not get it?  Why are we still paper mailing medical bills anyway?  How in the world in today time do they not just submit electronically?  Its scary to think my bill is out there somewhere within the postal system with all my personal information on it and who knows where it is....  Scary. 

Vacuuming

Vacuuming kills me every time, three juice boxes just to vacuum/shampoo our area rugs today. Ridiculous. Anyone else have low blood sugar after they vacuum or during? I can actually do that if my bg is high, to get it to drop.

Vacuum DEXCOM screams you are low and dropping....drink juice box

Vacuum some more DEXCOM screams again, repeat juice box

DEXCOM is still screaming at me.  JEESH this is annoying.  I could shut my pump off an hour before and I would still crash repeatedly.  I need a glucose IV drip to do housework I SWEAR! 

My JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes Experience

I have organized a team in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes for the past three years.  In 2011 a friend of mine spurred me into action and I decided I would put a team together.  My experience has been great and I am proud to take part in this fundraising event and together we have raised $7,654.00 for Diabetes research!

2014 $3,030

2013 $1,352

2012 $1,837

 2011 $1,435

12 hours

12 hours UNDER 150....TWELVE HOURS.  Enough said. 

t:slim I LOVE YOU when you are working properly and I am not having infusion set issues.

I finally figured out the comments on this blog

So I finally figured out how to make it so anyone can comment on my blog, not just Google users and so of course the comments made by Google users are gone.  I am so sorry.  Re-comment if you'd like! 

t:slim troubles

This week has been bad for my t:slim experience.

• Two set blow outs, TWO! Emailed my reps and will talk to their cde tomorrow hopefully. Never in four yrs of pumping and wearing sets for a week sometimes have I ever had a pump site blowout. 

So Im awake at 1030, sick with a horrible cold, my baby is sick, and I cant go to bed because I am high and did a no-no nighttime set change. Wonder freaking ful, Im exhausted. First blowout was a two day old set and second was just at four days old. This person is stumped and in a bit of shock.  Going to sleep now, jeesh. My eyelids weigh 300 pounds.
Update: Tandem CDE thinks it is a bad batch of infusion sets, so I will call Edgepark to get it replaced later today.  I pray this is the problem.   I am so glad I can call Lisa and troubleshoot these things with her!!!  I love you LISA you are great!

• 9/6/13 Edgepark Medical Supply is replacing the whole box of infusion sets for me! 

Migraines and colds really suck

Labor Day I spent the entire day confined to my dark room laying in my bed.  Worst Migraine I have had in many MANY years. I also have a cold, a COLD in September?! WTHeck?  Every time I would attempt to get up I would get very nauseated and felt like I was going to pass out, you know when your hearing goes funky like you are in a tunnel and your vision goes all dark, yeah I had to lay down immediately for fear of my head smacking the ground at an accelerated rate. My husband has never had a migraine so he didn't really understand how sick I was, but it was horrible.  I missed out on some awesome happenings...my dad got his 1914 Dodge running again with the help of my brother and I missed going for a ride in it with my husband and daughter, that sucked, my husband, bother and dad fixed the carb issue my 1971 Dodge Dart was having and they took it for a ride also.  All these things were totally impossible with the flipping migraine I had.  Sucked.  Now that the migraine finally went away Monday night after a lot of medication my COLD decided to kick it up a notch and now my sinuses keep filling up and the post nasal drip and the snot, man I hate snot. Totally unrelated to Diabetes but I just had to vent how MAD I am about the whole day wasted because of stupid migraine.  NOW my daughter probably has this wonderful cold too, great a baby with a cold, this should be fun.  Luckily I was so sick I could hardly eat so my dumb blood sugar decided to behave except for going low repeatedly...drinking juice while wanting to vomit is a fun experience that EVERYONE should get to do. I am so thankful to be amongst the living and for all you migraine sufferers you have my deepest sympathy.  I use to get them a lot and havent had one in years and I pray to God that I dont have another one for many more years!

Will you sign the petition for Diabetes?

Copied from the website: http://www.change.org/petitions/us-food-and-drug-administration-sponsor-a-patient-meeting-on-diabetes?q=petition

The Food and Drug Administration has begun to hold a series of patient meetings to gain a better understanding of specific diseases. Over the next five years, the agency plans to conduct at least 20 such meetings on conditions ranging from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to Narcolepsy to Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

But not diabetes.

That is unacceptable.

Four “slots” remain open (view the current list), and we want the FDA to add diabetes to its meeting docket for 2013.
According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly 26 million Americans have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, and an additional 79 million have prediabetes. Those numbers are also increasing each year – the CDC estimates that if current trends continue, one in three US adults will have diabetes by 2050.

No one disputes that diabetes is one of America’s – and the world’s – most serious health epidemics. In 2012, more than one in five total US healthcare dollars was spent on diabetes, totaling $245 billion, and the government covered 62% of those costs, meaning everyone is paying for this epidemic. Despite growing needs, research dollars have also leveled off.
New therapies need to be investigated, tested, and brought to market, and as part of that process, the FDA must understand the daily challenges that patients face.
We need to tell our story to the FDA: about the need for accurate strips, more physiologic insulin, a broader range of drugs, and the Artificial Pancreas.
Our voices need to be heard.

Please sign this petition to urge the FDA to sponsor a patient meeting focused on diabetes – and the sooner, the better.

Thank you very much.

Sign it: http://www.change.org/petitions/us-food-and-drug-administration-sponsor-a-patient-meeting-on-diabetes?q=petition

I have posted this in several Diabetic Facebook Groups with over 5,000 members, I sure hope they get the job done!