Health insurance woes....they just never end when you have a chronic lifelong expensive disease

The health insurance company we DUMPED also decided to DUMP me from accessing my claims on their website.  It has been 27 days and they cut my access off.  Really?  Wow.  So I tried calling them, hold time was insane as it always it.  I messaged them on their facebook page, I'm told someone will be calling me by the end of the day today.  We shall see.

Then I call Tandem Diabetes to see if they are contracted with my new insurance company, which is a HUGE company and they are not.  Super bummed.  I dislike supply companies unless its Homelink, I had a great experience with Homelink.

I was told to call Byrum so I tried Edgepark first instead because I have heard nightmares about Byrum.  They told me yes they are contracted with my insurance company and that my supplies don't go to deductible first.  Hmmm that is the first time I have ever heard that one!  It would be great but while I am on hold with my insurance to verify they tell me no its deductible first.  AHHH!!   So they are verifying my coverage now.  I am crossing my fingers that its just co-insurance and not my $1500 family deductible first. 

Now they said it is deductible first.  So I have to keep calling suppliers to see what they say and what their contracted pricing is with my insurance.  Man I hate this.

I hate health insurance and all the hoops and insane high cost of living with type 1 Diabetes in America. 

Please leave me your comments, it helps keep me motivated!

Closing in on one year of changing the way I eat

The month of April will make 1 whole year since I decided to eat low carb, no grains, no starch, no real sugar, limited fruit.  While I say no to all of those things I will admit that I do have a bite of off the limited food sometimes.   Keeping in mind I have pretty good will power (let's not even discuss the holidays) and I can almost always limit it to a few bites, but then the repurcussions always ALWAYS follow with a blood sugar spike.

When you go low carb and not eat the things that spike your blood sugar, when you do eat them it makes the reaction MUCH much worse for me and I read online that is the case with a lot of other people as well.

My breakfasts almost always consist of eggs with cream cheeese, heavy whipping cream and cheddar cheese and of course coffee with heavy whipping cream and a sugar free torani syrup.  Once you stop eating real sugar, you can actually stop craving it, no joke.  Otherwise I have one of those quick microwave english muffins (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/342414377897691500/) or french toast (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/342414377895830030/) or when I make and freeze these on the weekend (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/342414377895695876/)

Lunch is always a salad.  I buy the premade bags from my local hyvee along with the premade bag of chopped up cabbage.  I just don't have time to chop up lettuce, this saves me a ton of time.  I also try to bring something else along with it for protein, like cheese sticks, or a home made protein bar, greek yogurt with sugar free torani syrup in it and some erythritol, or whatever is left over in my fridge. 

Dinner is almost always whatever I make on the fly.  I typically cook something off my pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/342414377895695876/ or I wing something low carb. I have tried cooking and freezing on the weekends and with our current home reno project I just don't have a minute to spare let alone several hours to bake. 

The benefits of eating this way are unending.  First and foremost my blood sugar is much more stable, I can get up and do things and move around without worrying about my blood sugar dropping like a rock like it use to.  I feel better, my mood is better, my arthritis pain is better if not gone most days, my daily headaches are gone, my ability to sleep all night is better, and I feel better about the outcome of my life with type 1 Diabetes.  I still dont have my blood sugar nailed down to the level I want it to be at but its a work in progress.  It has been hard to undo all that has been ingrained in my brain for 15 years, its hard to look at my Dexcom and be ok hovering at 100, Im still dealing with that aspect but I am getting there. 

Type 1 Diabetes is a moving target.  My Diabetes is never the same throughout the month thanks to awesome female hormones and its never the same month to month.  Its a target that moves around and it's hard to hit it just perfect every month and I don't hit it perfect I just aim for it and sometimes hit bumps on the way.  The bumps are what sometimes are hard for me to accept but I try to learn from them and go forward. 

Changing the way you eat entirely is scary and can be maddening because it felt like to me in some ways that I was giving into Diabetes.  Life with type 1 Diabetes is anything but simple, or cut and paste.  It's complex, each one of us is different, each one of us has to live our own way with type 1 diabetes.  Fast acting insulin that is available to us today just isn't fast enough, it just isn't.  I have taken the personal choice with my t1d care to eliminate the stuff that makes my blood sugar spike and then crash.  I have chosen to step off the roller coaster until they can cure me.  I have chosen to eliminate the high level of  inflammation in my body that can lead to t1d complications like, heart disease, hardened arteries and kidney failure all caused by my previous and constant up and down battle with my blood sugar.  One article explains that just for example: (http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/blog/put-out-the-fire-of-diabetes-inflammation/) 

Take that first step off the roller coaster, start researching recipes and ingredients.  The first step the the hardest by far and the most expensive for your grocery bill. After that the carb withdrawal sets in and then the criticism from everyone around you because your will power is better than theirs and you are taking your life with diabetes into your control not the food's control.   High sugar, high carb content food isn't good for anyone, just take a look at the increasing waist size of many Americans.  You can thank the sugar and the corn industry for making their way into almost ALL of the food you buy at the grocery store.

You can do it, there are support groups that can help! 

Dont forget to like my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/diabeticwarrior/
AND join the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/diabeticwarriors/

Please leave me your comments, it helps keep me motivated!

Harvard and MIT close to ‘cure’ for Type 1 diabetes which will end daily injections 

 

I can dream right?  Wouldnt this just be the best freaking day EVER?!  I know I am ready for anything to let me stop depending on insulin for my survival.


 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12120141/Harvard-and-MIT-close-to-cure-for-Type-1-diabetes-which-will-end-daily-injections.html


I am more than ready to be cured. I have plenty of other things I could devote my time to if it wasn't for Diabetes. Diabetes only slows me down at times, it doesn't stop me anymore. Going low carb changed my entire life with this stupid disease. 

Do you think you could find other, more enjoyable things to do in life if you didn't have Diabetes in the back of your mind all the time?

Please leave me your comments, it helps keep me motivated!

My Dexcom transmitter and how I sometimes carry my Dexcom and Insulin pump in the last place you would expect!

So my transmitter I ordered in July and opened 1 month ago is starting to lose big gaps in coverage, like hours of saying it it out of range when it is clearly attached to my ankle.  (yeah I carry it on my ankle in cold months when I am wearing long pants)  I have one week left of warranty and we are getting new health insurance.  I wont have the new health insurance information/ID card for probably another 10 days.  So you know what that means!?  FREAK OUT time!

Luckily I called Dexcom today and they offered to replace my transmitter with one that has a 60 day warranty, so at least I can get approved for a new transmitter in that time frame.  THANK YOU DEXCOM!

(Can you see my Dexcom or Tslim on my ankles?   Nooooo)

(Well there they are and YES I am wearing black long underwear, its freakin cold here, ok!  Tslim in a baby sock in a Spiband from Spibelt.com)

Maybe in the mean time the G5 will get FDA Android approval and then I can just order the G5 and have it sent to my phone and not worry about losing my receiver constantly.  I am still kind of worried about the G5 and that you HAVE to replace it every 6 months.  The costs scare me, I guess until I know the cost of my portion with this new insurance I will just wait to freak out.
 
Yeah, right, I will wait to freak out about the high cost of living with Type 1 Diabetes, I will try anyway.

 (Dexcom in a Tally Gear case from Tallygear.com)

Please leave me your comments, it helps keep me motivated!

TypeZero Technologies' Artificial Pancreas Solution, inControl AP, Will Be Tested in a Large Scale

 @typezerotech

TypeZero Technologies' Artificial Pancreas Solution, inControl AP, Will Be Tested in a Large Scale, NIH Funded ($12.7 Million) Clinical Study Run by the University of Virginia and 8 Other Locations in 2016

TypeZero's inControl AP platform will revolutionize diabetes management for many Type 1 patients around the world. 

Charlottesville, VA, January 4, 2016 (Newswire.com) -  TypeZero Technologies is pleased to announce that we will provide our inControl AP (Artificial Pancreas) diabetes management platform as the core analytic and control technology for the NIH sponsored, $12.7 million clinical study called the International Diabetes Closed Loop Trial (“IDCL”).  This trial is scheduled to begin in early 2016 and is managed by Dr. Boris Kovatchev and the Center for Diabetes Technology at the University of Virginia (“UVA”).

Click the link to read the whole article.
http://www.newswire.com/news/typezero-technologies-artificial-pancreas-solution-incontrol-ap-will-be-7208527

My question about this amazing technology is will the user be able to customize the range at which this artificial pancreas will maintain a person's blood sugar?   Or is this something you will not be able to adjust at all and what is the lowest a person can set to maintain? 


Please leave me your comments, it helps keep me motivated!