The Cost of Diabetes

A few nights ago I went to pick up my Lantus (long acting basal) insulin and since my insurance had lapsed and was under redetermination I wasn't covered. The cost of this one bottle of insulin, $290. The pharmacist said "we didn't fill it yet because of the cost, do you still want it?" Hmm... let me think, I need this every day just to make my body work. Basically something to keep me alive. So yeah, I think we need to go ahead and fill it, my house payment won't get made but choices have to be made.

But that's not all of the prescriptions it takes to keep me ticking. I also need fast acting insulin, needles, tester, test strips, lancets, and alcohol swabs. The test strips are another huge purchase since they cost about one dollar each and I am suppose to use four a day. On top of that I have high blood pressure which requires twice a day pills plus a water pill/ Add on a cholesterol pill and a vitamin. To top it all off the stresses have made me not sleep well and I take a prescribed sleep aid. I am sure there are a few more. Oh wait, every three months I also have a birth control shot.

Healthcare is a very big business for sure. Just yesterday my doctor added in a antibiotic because my diabetic foot cracked in the back and he thinks that it may be infected, I get to take it three times a day for two weeks. Speaking of my doctor, I was almost yelling at him yesterday. He had given me a new blood pressure medicine almost two months ago, and two weeks into it I knew it was crap. I felt like crap, my stomach was sour, I was fatigued, I was bloating all over, and I was mentally miserable. I called in and told them my symptoms so they changed me to a new medicine. Problem was it was in the same family of medicines. By the third day of taking it I was tired of being exhausted and

nauseous. Knowing that taking a medicine at bed time can help, I slowly weaned it to that time. At least I was sleeping through the extreme tiredness and nausea but now I could focus on the constant fatigue from walking anything over fifty steps at a time and the severe bloating of my lower legs and feet. I had never seen my feet so huge and dry. I was deep moisturizing and putting my feet above my heart all of the time. By the end of the night they were so uncomfortable I was in constant fidget mode. I tried calling in again, and the nurse seemed to never be able to get back to me. I resorted to using the email part of their website. Finally a nurse called me back to tell me that I needed to see the doctor, but that the doctor's nurse would have to call me back to make the appointment. Bureaucracy at its' finest. At the appointment I find out that my blood pressure has sky rocketed, but I guess not serious enough to require anything to be done at that time, because nothing was done. So I have to admit I was pissy, very pissy. Here I had been miserable for over a month and now I find out the stupid medicine wasn't even doing its' job. Great, just great. Once my doctor comes in he wants to talk about my diabetes. I bit his head off. Yes, I would love to be more aggressive with my sugar levels, but that's sort of impossible when I can't even waddle down the damn hallway on my bloated legs and feet without gasping for air. Let me say that I like my doctor, once he actually listened to me and looked at me and took care of the issues, I apologized and headed off to the pharmacy once more.