Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Bedtime is the Scariest

His blood sugar check before bed was 86, so he drinks some apple juice to bring him up.  We are in the process of trying to figure out what will bring his blood sugar up and keep him steady.  It seems that when he drinks juice at night, it will bring him up during the night then by the time he wakes up he's on the low end again (80's).  Bedtime is the scariest for me, he does not have a CGM yet.  Our health insurance would not pay for the Dexcom.  I guess it wasn't "medically necessary".

This is what I have to say to ALL HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES - Live in our shoes for a day, 1 day.  Then tell me how it feels to wake up in the middle of the night to check your loved one's blood sugar, you will soon realize that you don't even need to set an alarm most of the time, instincts kick in and you "just know" you need to check.  Tell me how it feels to run around outside, play, go for a walk, to do something spontaneous, only to come back home to a low blood sugar.  Tell me how it feels to lug "your emergency pack" around with you, AT ALL TIMES.  Tell me how it feels to have to suspend your insulin pump before getting in the shower.  Tell me how it feels when your loved one is in the emergency room because his or her blood sugar got too high or too low.  Tell me how it feels to look at an emergency glucagon pen thinking that one day you may have to inject that in someone you love if they are unconscious due to a low blood sugar.  Tell me what it feels like to have tears fall from your eyes because you love that person so very much and it breaks your heart into a million pieces to see them deal with this every minute of every day. THEN TELL ME IT'S NOT "MEDICALLY NECESSARY" TO APPROVE A CGM THAT COULD IMPROVE THE PERSON I LOVE WITH ALL MY HEART'S LIFE, SOMETHING THAT COULD POTENTIALLY SAVE HIS LIFE.  TELL ME!!

3 comments:

  1. My insurance denied one for me saying they don't pay for a convenience. I didn't think it was a convenience, I thought it was a piece of equipment that would help prevent me from passing out and dying from a low.

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  2. What I do with my son is give him (age 7/8) one or two quick tabs (depending on how low) then a glass of milk (cuz of the protein & fat) to help him stay 'up'

    Oh and I cried reading this..I haven't tried getting a CGM now..I'm trying to get past the 2,500 freaking dollar deductible first..bs I tell you!. But it's word for word how I feel.

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  3. @Kelly, I agree!! A CGM is not a convenience.

    @Jennie, thanks for the tip I think your right milk probably would work well. We will try that next time.

    Pass this blog along, maybe the more people that read & support maybe just maybe we can get something done. We can't just accept the fact that health insurance companies our determining our and those we love with type 1's future. An insulin pump and a cgm are NOT a convenience. We went from a 12 A1C for 15 years down to a 6.7 with a pump, I'm sure the insurance companies would tell us that not having diabetic complications is just a convenience too!!

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