Oh boy, you hit a nerve.BottenFieldofDreams wrote: ↑December 19 22, 9:53 pmI’m Type I Diabetic. I will be tomorrow, the next day, in April when a new primary provider is finally able to see me, and I will be the day I die… from T1D.
So why the [expletive] do I need a referral to see an endocrinologist? This is the only way I can get refills on the equipment I need for my Continuous Monitor with my new insurance.
I think I might check into the ER every day until I can see an endo and get the gear I need to take care of myself, just to make insurance pay for it. Bad outcomes like the ER are far more likely without CGM. But I have to jump through hoops for several months to get it.
This is so backwards and infuriating.
I'm in the same boat. It is wildly infuriating. And, it's not just cgm stuff but insulin as well.
One time I took humalog in the morning instead of lantus, which suffice to say, was a grave mistake. Ended up unconscious in the ER. Then the ICU.
Blah blah blah. Woke up about 12 hours later.
In the meantime, an endo in the hospital got involved. And, he ended up calling in a RX to my pharmacy for one reason or another. IDK what it was he called in, maybe insulin RX refills.
Fast forward a few months and I need my RX for lantus refilled. The pharmacy, probably because they see he's an endo, sent the refill request to his office. And, he denies it because he's not my doctor. And, I don't know this until I go get more insulin and can't. At which point I have precisely zero lantus. And it of course takes a couple hours to a day for the pharmacy to call the doctor and the doctor to call the pharmacy and renew the thing. But, I don't have that kind of time.
So, I drive over to the doctors office and tell them I need them to refill the RX now. Which they don't take kindly to and say I shouldn't let myself get this low on insulin....Touche. I didn't ask to have to do this. It's a complete scam that I need a RX for insulin in the first place. At this point, I'm taking some amount of humalog every hour to make up for the fact that I have no lantus. And, who calculated how much humalog to take? Me. Finally get that resolved with a stern lecture about not letting myself get that low on insulin. [expletive] off. Give me unlimited refills, and I won't be that low on insulin, or better yet, let's change the system so I don't need to get a RX in the first place.
Regardless, switched doctors because, [expletive] that place.
Then a couple months later, after I've been through all the hoops to get a new doc to write my RXs, I ended up getting sick. No idea what it was, maybe food poisoning. Regardless, I couldn't keep any food down. And my blood sugar keeps dropping. So, I'm chugging oj/gatorade/whatever to get my BS up. Then puking, then my BS is dropping. Rinse.Wash.Repeat. I was like, I need a glucagon. Look in my medical drawer and of course don't have one. So, call the pharmacy and tel them I need one. They tell me I need a RX. Of course. So I ask them to send in a request to my doc. And, they do. So, I chug some OJ, drive to the pharmacy, puke in the pharmacy parking lot and walk my happy ass in.
Pharmacy says RX request was denied. Buy some gatorade, chug it, and go to the doc office. Puke in the doc office parking lot. Walk my happy ass in and ask why they denied the rx request for a glucagon. They said they didn't know what it was. FML. I tell them. They say they can't approve the RX because they dont know what it is. I explain the situation. Then puke in their bathroom. They tell me to go to the ER. I was like...no. They're just going to give me a glucagon or a d50 iv. And charge way more. Just give me a [expletive] RX for a glucagon. The doc must have googled "glucagon" and came out and said he'd send in the request. Next time I called to make an appt, I was told they weren't seeing me anymore.
Fine. At least they learned what a [expletive] glucagon was.
Sure, maybe I should be more prepared. Also, maybe, I should be able to access life saving medicine like it's not a 3rd world country. [expletive].