Most people who live with a chronic illness end up with a lot of experience when it comes to dealing with healthcare. How would you improve or change your healthcare experience? What would you like to see happening during medical visits with your healthcare team? How about when dealing with your health insurance companies? What's your Healthcare Wish List or Biggest Frustration? Today is the day to share it all!
I've never really had a problem with my doctors or the insurance company concerning my diabetes and the medication I need or the equipment I require. No the biggest problems I've had is where I now get my pump and meter supplies. It is a facility associated with one of the Universities. It takes forever for them to send the information to my insurance company. And the amount they tell me I owe, is not the amount the insurance company has come up with. That is the biggest problem I have.
The price of Lantus and Humalog. Now that is OUTRAGEOUS. I had been on N and R until 2015, when I switched I was shocked at the price increase even with insurance.. If I could use R in my pump I would. My endo doesn't like N and R, says old insulin isn't as good as the new stuff. I disagree with her. I had better control of my blood sugars with the N and R. Most people, as in other diabetics who have never used N or R have told me that is impossible. I don't know if I'd have better luck with the R in the pump or even if I could put that in, but I'd like to try. I haven't brought it up with my endo because I know what her thoughts on this would be. The price of insulin in the US is crazy. I feel sorry for people who do not have insurance because it's outrageous.
I had one "diabetic doctor" when I was growing up. I saw him maybe three times my entire child/teen life. See my parents didn't care if I lived or died. Wait, let me amend that. They wanted me to die. They needed something to blame. Then my body gave it to them. Juvenile Onset Diabetes was it.
When I returned home from my 2nd time at a Diabetic Camp, they informed me, I was 9 at the time, I was now going to be in total control of my diabetes. It was up to me to decide how much insulin I was to take. How much food I was to eat. It was all up to me. I could no longer go into their bedroom in the morning and ask them if I had filled my glass syringe correctly. They sent me to diabetic camp to learn how to do that.
So from the time I was 9 years old until I had my cancer surgery at the age of 54 I only saw an endo when I was in the hospital. I was the one who was in TOTAL control of my diabetes. It is only by the grace of God that I have no complications.
The primary care physicians I've had since becoming an adult have all allowed me to control my diabetes without an endo. They all agreed that I knew my body better than anyone else. That if a problem arose, they'd find an endo or another specialist who could help me out.
I've talked about my cancer in my blog so I'm not going to here. You can find the posts and read about it if you so desire. But when I was in the hospital for the surgery that discovered the cancer, that is where I found the wonderful doctor, who I called Dr. Shorty. She was the endo who was fighting for me. The surgical team, the head of the team wasn't there most of my hospital stay, so she's not to blame, were not listening to the endo. She kept telling them that my insulin needed to be raised because of how high my blood sugars were. They were averaging in the upper 250mg/dl. I was going nuts because that was too high. The surgical team didn't listen to the endo, because in my mind she was only a 4th year resident. But because of how she fought for me, listened to me, I decided, after the push from my daughter, I'd finally go see an endo.
We don't always agree with each other. I told her at my last visit that she's my favorite doctor and she said that I'm her favorite patient, she added that I'm feisty!. She is a great doctor. I wish she could be my primary because she listens to me. She wants me to be the best I can be.
No comments:
Post a Comment