The gift that keeps on giving me insulin
Well I finally got my new insulin pump a couple of weeks ago and got trained how to use it a couple of days ago. Now, I could've figured out how to use it myself but then my lame insurance would have forced me to sign a bunch of paperwork about refusing to receive training, instead of just driving down to the Barnes and Noble in town to meet with the trainer for about an hour to figure out how this crazy thing works. Now this all should have been done at the beginning of '08 as that is when my family's health insurance switched over, but luckily our old insurance company, which was so much better, I had a stockpile of supplies that should still last me for another few months with my old pump. I had to get a new pump because usually you get a new one every 4 years, but also because my old pump started acting up - it would say the battery was dead when it still had at least 1/2 to 3/4 charge still left and shut down when I would try and deliver insulin for a meal I had until I would put a new battery in it. The insurance company was shooting me down for getting a new pump for such stupid reasons.
1. I don't see a doctor 4 times a year.
I can't see my doctor 4 times a year because I am going to school 10 hours north of them and I am only downstate long enough to see them twice a year.
2. I wasn't ordering supplies from them for over a month.
I didn't need supplies I had a friggin huge stockpile of them! And they aren't free like they were before so why the hell would I want to jump right into paying for something I didn't exactly need right away?
3. They didn't have a record of certain blood tests.
These tests should have been done when I was first diagnosed! Being on a pump for 4 years should have been proof enough that I am diabetic. And then I had more to deal with when getting these tests done - they were blood tests that I had to fast for and someone messed up along the way and forgot 1 of the tests out of 3. Well apparently they have to be done all at the same time so I had to get them done again which cost $230 each time, luckily the hospital payed up for the 2nd time cause they messed up.
The list goes on, but as a few months past the saint that works for the pump company finally pulled through and got the insurance company to drop all their disputes on why to deny me the pump.
There are lots of cool features, but sadly no Tetris yet. One of the things I love most which will probably sound scary to those of you afraid of needles are the new 'infusion sets' the little piece of tube that sticks in me to deliver insulin that I change out every 3 days or so instead of doing shots. Before I would have to put these in by hand, which was painful sometimes, but the new ones come in this little device and are spring-loaded. It makes the process much less awkward and a lot less painful since before I would have to do it slowly instead of jamming the needle in as fast as it goes now.
Another cool thing is the pump came with a new blood tester that transmits through RF what my blood sugar reading is so I don't have to punch it in. Also I can use the tester as a remote control for the pump if it is buried in my pocket, or if I just don't feel like juggling around 2 things. Also there is a little IR transmitter on the pump so I can download all of it's data to my computer and also like a phone, have different 'ringtones' for alarms like when it needs to be refilled, right now it just has the default classical music one.
A few things annoy me about the new pump, like how it holds 2 cc's of insulin instead of 3 so I have to change out things more rapidly than before, but overall I like it a lot and it seems like it is built much better than my old pump.
1. I don't see a doctor 4 times a year.
I can't see my doctor 4 times a year because I am going to school 10 hours north of them and I am only downstate long enough to see them twice a year.
2. I wasn't ordering supplies from them for over a month.
I didn't need supplies I had a friggin huge stockpile of them! And they aren't free like they were before so why the hell would I want to jump right into paying for something I didn't exactly need right away?
3. They didn't have a record of certain blood tests.
These tests should have been done when I was first diagnosed! Being on a pump for 4 years should have been proof enough that I am diabetic. And then I had more to deal with when getting these tests done - they were blood tests that I had to fast for and someone messed up along the way and forgot 1 of the tests out of 3. Well apparently they have to be done all at the same time so I had to get them done again which cost $230 each time, luckily the hospital payed up for the 2nd time cause they messed up.
The list goes on, but as a few months past the saint that works for the pump company finally pulled through and got the insurance company to drop all their disputes on why to deny me the pump.
There are lots of cool features, but sadly no Tetris yet. One of the things I love most which will probably sound scary to those of you afraid of needles are the new 'infusion sets' the little piece of tube that sticks in me to deliver insulin that I change out every 3 days or so instead of doing shots. Before I would have to put these in by hand, which was painful sometimes, but the new ones come in this little device and are spring-loaded. It makes the process much less awkward and a lot less painful since before I would have to do it slowly instead of jamming the needle in as fast as it goes now.
Another cool thing is the pump came with a new blood tester that transmits through RF what my blood sugar reading is so I don't have to punch it in. Also I can use the tester as a remote control for the pump if it is buried in my pocket, or if I just don't feel like juggling around 2 things. Also there is a little IR transmitter on the pump so I can download all of it's data to my computer and also like a phone, have different 'ringtones' for alarms like when it needs to be refilled, right now it just has the default classical music one.
A few things annoy me about the new pump, like how it holds 2 cc's of insulin instead of 3 so I have to change out things more rapidly than before, but overall I like it a lot and it seems like it is built much better than my old pump.