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AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Random musings

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

BottenFieldofDreams wrote:
December 19 22, 9:53 pm
I’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.
Oh boy, you hit a nerve.

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].

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BottenFieldofDreams
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Re: Random musings

Post by BottenFieldofDreams »

Damn.

Here’s the thing about a third world country: when I lived in Vietnam, I could walk up to a pharmacy counter with no script and buy a bottle of insulin for $30-40. 10 percent the price and roughly zero percent of the trouble.

America is a terrible place to be Type I Diabetic. I’m sure this is true of other serious, chronic diseases as well. It is not true in any other developed nation. In Vietnam you won’t get a pump or a CGM l, I don’t think. But if one of my kids is diagnosed, I will honestly look into what it takes to move to New Zealand or something. I don’t want to deal with this for two people. More importantly, what if there was any reasonable safety net in a developed society that demonstrated any concern at all for people in this situation? It would make it much easier to go through life.

I can write my representatives again, I suppose.


I went into an urgent care in the middle of the tripledemic with a chronic immunosuppressive disease. They could not provide me a referral. Insurance would not honor their prescription for equipment.

To call it all stupid would sell the danger and cruelty short. The outcomes of T1D with the proper tools are far better for insurance companies (and strained medical systems).

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Random musings

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Close friends/family are bar none the biggest safety net that I've found. Though, I imagine that would be the case regardless of where I ever went. My biggest issue is always going to be hypoglycemia. It's not like someone can always be available to help with that aside from friends/family.

But, yeah, it's never made much sense to me why it's such a pita to get proper care. There's a company 'livongo' I think that will send you test strips/meter/A1Cs free of charge. Pretty sure the meter is free at least. I know the strips/A1c is.

And, while that's helpful and convenient, it doesn't much matter because you still need RX for all the other stuff. And, insurance will remain to be the biggest crock of [expletive] whose sole existence is seemingly to make life 1 million x more complicated than it needs to be. Luckily Mrs. AW can write my RX now so I use her a lot. But, she can't write unlimited RX refills, only for 1 year, so inevitably once a year I end up at the pharmacy calling her and being like...here...talk to the pharmacist so I can get what I need. So [expletive] stupid.

I haven't been to an endo or dr office since Mrs. AW became licensed to prescribe my stuff. Once a year I'll get bloodwork done and twice a year check my a1c. Why it has to be more complicated than that, I'll never know. I've been doing it for 25 years and I'd bet a dollar to dime that I can manage my [expletive] better than any healthcare pro could. And, that's not speaking poorly of them. I just have a system and make seemingly tens/hundreds of decisions a day, understand specifically how they impact me, how it impacts BS, and how to handle it. I'm sure you're the same way.

I've heard two arguments for why insulin should require an RX. The first is that it can be used as a weapon. And, that's true. It's also as distinguishable of a death as a gunshot wound when tested for. And, we have lots of guns. The second is its dangerous if people need it but don't know how to use it. Which is also true. But, I have to imagine if people are using it, they care enough about themselves to learn to use it first. So neither make much sense to me. Just the medical complex money grab.

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G. Keenan
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Re: Random musings

Post by G. Keenan »

Good, albeit depressing, posts guys.

Perfect example of why our healthcare system sucks. I don't know why people are so afraid of quote, "socialized medicine." Insurance, as a concept, is the definition of socialized risk. Rather than maximize the efficiencies gained from pooled risk, we have chosen to have hundreds of separate smaller risk pools, each with their own bureaucratic rules and restrictions and costs and overhead. Nobody likes this system, except the insurance companies I presume. Providers must surely hate having to deal with billing insurance. Patients are forced to check, double check, and then check again that every service they need is covered, in network, etc. Otherwise, you'll get thousands in bills you have to fight and haggle over with insurance, go into medical debt, etc. It's absurd.

Insulin should cost like $10. Diabetics in the USA are getting milked like farm animals by Eli Lilly et al.

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thrill
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Re: Random musings

Post by thrill »

Insulin is definitely the best canary in the coal mine for our healthcare system. It's purely profit-driven in this country and no others.

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BottenFieldofDreams
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Re: Random musings

Post by BottenFieldofDreams »

What if Type 1 Diabetics were given some kind of badge to override the need for a prescription? We could call it the Star of David Ricks (the Lilly CEO, who ironically is the one of the few people in our country wealthy enough to afford insulin). Of course it would probably require no less than 85 phone calls and cost $3k if you’re deductible is not met to acquire.

Maybe the move is to get this in exchange for allowing Ricks to garnish diebetics' wages. We all win.

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IMADreamer
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Re: Random musings

Post by IMADreamer »

I feel for you guys with diabetes. I'm sure you've been fighting this terrible system for a long time. I've completely lost faith in our healthcare system this year. For the first time in my life I'm dealing with long term stuff and it's just infuriating. To start things off if you call a doctor you always have to go through this answering machine, you know press 1 for blah blah blah. It just drives me nuts. Just hire someone to answer the damn phone. Then getting something scheduled has been a whole other issue. I know I've posted about some of my problems but in the last month or so on top of the other things, I've found out I'm in the very early stages of MS, and I've been having seizures. Thankfully they have been small and I can deal with them, but I also can't drive a semi or tractor until we figure it out. My doctor ordered a pretty insane amount of tests which I'm fine with but it took 5 weeks to get all of them scheduled. It's so frustrating waiting and knowing at any time I could have another seizure. Not to mention trying to get everything done before the end of the year so I don't have to start on a new deductible.

The health care system in this country is just trash. The only reason we put up with it is because most people don't know there is a better way and half the people in this country are brainwashed morons.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Random musings

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Honestly, it's a bad system, but I just get kind of numb to it. Its so engrained in my daily/life routine at this point, I don't much care. Reading posts like BFD's though gets my blood boiling. It's like reliving all those bad experiences again.

Sorry to hear about MS, Ima, hope everything works out. I don't know much about it but know a few peeps that have been diagnosed in the past 10 years and seem to be doing well.

Mrs. AW has been dealing with...something. When she runs, her left leg kicks up way too high nearly kicking her ass with the back of her heel. It's been progressively getting worse for the past year. She's been to, in no particular order, a chiropractor, gp, neuro, back/spine, and someone else. Had MRIs to check for legions which was negative. But, the most irritating thing is the process and how long it takes. Like, go see doc 0 (gp). Doc 0 recommends seeing doc 1 (neuro). Wait 1 month, see Doc 1. Doc 1 wants an MRI to rule out MS/cancer/etc. Wait 2 months for an MRI. Wait 2 weeks to get back to the doc 1. Doc 1 says no legions in brain which is good. But also a long 2.5 months. Doc 1 recommends seeing Doc 2 (ortho/back/hip), says nothing Doc 1 can do any further. 2 month wait to see Doc 2. Doc 2 sees something on MRI but not causing the leg kick issue, recommends seeing Doc 3 (movement disorder). Just a long, frustrating process.

I may have forgotten which doctors specialize in what, but that was the general gist of it.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Random musings

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

BottenFieldofDreams wrote:
December 20 22, 2:36 pm
What if Type 1 Diabetics were given some kind of badge to override the need for a prescription? We could call it the Star of David Ricks (the Lilly CEO, who ironically is the one of the few people in our country wealthy enough to afford insulin). Of course it would probably require no less than 85 phone calls and cost $3k if you’re deductible is not met to acquire.

Maybe the move is to get this in exchange for allowing Ricks to garnish diebetics' wages. We all win.
Yep. Seems like a diagnosis of T1D should be enough to get insulin covered by insurance for the rest of life or until no longer needed.

There's also the question of dosing, but that should be kicked to the patient as well. I'm sure people could abuse it and say they need 20 vials a month, but situations like that would be easily flagged. There's really not ever going to be a secondary market for insulin. Like if someone got 2 vials a month but only used one, who would they sell the 2nd vial to? Who would buy a vial from a person off the street especially if they could instead get it from a pharmacy?

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IMADreamer
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Re: Random musings

Post by IMADreamer »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
December 22 22, 9:36 am
Honestly, it's a bad system, but I just get kind of numb to it. Its so engrained in my daily/life routine at this point, I don't much care. Reading posts like BFD's though gets my blood boiling. It's like reliving all those bad experiences again.

Sorry to hear about MS, Ima, hope everything works out. I don't know much about it but know a few peeps that have been diagnosed in the past 10 years and seem to be doing well.

Mrs. AW has been dealing with...something. When she runs, her left leg kicks up way too high nearly kicking her ass with the back of her heel. It's been progressively getting worse for the past year. She's been to, in no particular order, a chiropractor, gp, neuro, back/spine, and someone else. Had MRIs to check for legions which was negative. But, the most irritating thing is the process and how long it takes. Like, go see doc 0 (gp). Doc 0 recommends seeing doc 1 (neuro). Wait 1 month, see Doc 1. Doc 1 wants an MRI to rule out MS/cancer/etc. Wait 2 months for an MRI. Wait 2 weeks to get back to the doc 1. Doc 1 says no legions in brain which is good. But also a long 2.5 months. Doc 1 recommends seeing Doc 2 (ortho/back/hip), says nothing Doc 1 can do any further. 2 month wait to see Doc 2. Doc 2 sees something on MRI but not causing the leg kick issue, recommends seeing Doc 3 (movement disorder). Just a long, frustrating process.

I may have forgotten which doctors specialize in what, but that was the general gist of it.
Thanks, when you first hear that you have MS it's pretty scary but the doctor explained things to me and it seems pretty manageable. Life expectancy is normal so it's not some huge existential crisis. The biggest things for me is weakness in my limbs, tingling, and it's making me walk a little goofy at times. I have a little involuntary movement in my arms and hands. It may get worse over time, but it sounds like medication can keep things from progressing much. It just sounds like that at times some things in life will be on hard mode. I can handle it.

I hope Mrs. AW can get things straightened out. It is really stressful when you know something is not right but it seems like you are running in circles trying to figure out what.

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