You’d think that I was applying to bring a dragon home from some fantastical world into ours by all the questions I was being asked in regards to getting the process started to get a CGMS from Minimed.
They were all questions that my doctor could’ve answered but for some reason I had to answer them. It makes one wonder if they asked my doctor the same questions and if they’re going to cross reference them and if they don’t match if I’m going to get a big fat “DENIED” stamp on the letter.
Dude: “You’re a type 2 diabetic correct?”
Me: “Type 1, actually”
Dude: “How long have you had diabetes?”
Me: “16 years”
Dude: “How old were you when you were diagnosed?”
Me: “11″
Dude: “How old are you now?”
Me: “27″ (and as I say this I’m wondering what my age has to do with anything, I want a CGMS, not a membership card to AARP)
Dude: “Do you know when your blood sugar is low?”
Me: “no” (not until it’s too late and my vision is closing in and I’m getting ready to drop to the floor)
Dude: “do you have lows in the middle of the night?”
Me: “yes” (thank God I live with my parents and they’re around in the middle of then night and hear the unusual sounds coming from my room, darn dying animals waking up the other people in the house)
Dude: “how many times in the last 2 years have low blood sugars required assistance?”
Me: “3-4 times”
Dude: “are you pregnant or do you plan on becoming pregnant?”
Me: “no” (this is an insulin pump not some adopted child’s life that I’m going to destroy by bringing my own blood into this world right after that adopted one comes home)
Dude: “In the last 2 years have you been hospitalized due to your diabetes?”
Me: “Yes, in September I spent a week in ICU for diabetic ketoacidosis” (I almost died and it wasn’t due to me neglecting my diabetes)
Dude: “I’ll send this information to my insurance specialist and she’ll contact you in a couple days”
Now, I had told my doctor how to circumvent this whole process (I even wrote my own prescription letter and gave it to her), but apparently my insurance company has made the process easier in the last couple weeks. And thus, she wanted to go through that route before going down mine. What they didn’t know is that I had a little birdie telling me exactly what I needed to do to get my pump ASAP. And what that little birdie told me to do is exactly what they’re doing, except they’re jumping through more hoops than are necessary and were told that the hoops they were jumping through weren’t necessarily getting more acceptances than denials. Which is bullshit because my one hoop has had an incredibly high success rate of getting acceptances for the Minimed CGMS and it’s through the same company that they’re working with.
The process has begun, now, I sit and wait for a phone call.
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I like the new look of the site. Good luck getting your pump!
I asked my Endocrinologist about a CGMS due to my hypoglycemia. At one point I was testing almost every 30 minutes to an hour trying to find a pattern. I was not as brittle as you were.
My doc said it was a great idea and that this would show us a clearer picture of how my body was reacting to food and exercise. But he knew I would be rejected by insurance. My problem is that there is no true diagnosis for my hypoglycemia (we suspect it is my WLS and it probably is). The issue is hypoglycemia by itself is a symptom, what I was displaying is usually caused by insulinomas, which I do not have. The insurance would allow a cgms (maybe) to monitor me after diagnosis, not to use one to get a diagnosis.
In any case, I loved the quote, “not until it’s too late and my vision is closing in and I’m getting ready to drop to the floor.” Been there, done that, hit the floor a number of times, screamed at a few loved ones, knocked a hole in my bathroom door after finding a spot on my tie. You know the joys.
Keep riding hard. I see you were doing some riding and tri-ing in New Mexico. Welcome!
Bobblehead