I asked my gp to refer me to an endocrinologist. He doesn’t seem to know much about diabetes, so I figured, oh, if I go to an endocrinologist, it will be good.
I went and picked up my labs in person, so I would have all the information for my first visit to the endocrinologist.
I am in a room, and in walks a woman, and she says she is a med student. She looks at my labs and says I am not a diabetic. She says 129 is not a diabetic. I said, “Then what is wrong with me?” She just smiles. That must be the new thing with docs, to just smile when they don’t know.
I said, "What about all my readings (showing her my home log of my BS testing) showing me from 120 to250.
She said, “Well, youre not a diabetic.” I said, “Why did my doc put me on Metformin then, should I stop it?” She said, "I don’t know."
Now, I am not a violent person, but I was close to putting my hands around her neck…
Then the endocrinologist comes in. “Oh yeah, yeah, you’re a diabetic.” He tells me he wishes he could put me on Byetta, besides the Metformin. I told him I just loved the Metformin, especially since it has caused me to have accidents in my pants.
They always ignore that if I tell them that. I guess docs don’t want to hear it.
He said, “Its a shame, your insurance won’t cover the Byetta.”
So I go home, call the insurance company and ask them why they wouldn’t cover a drug that could make me well. I was told if the doctor sends his notes and why, to their pharmacy department, they will review this, and possibly cover the drug. So, I call the doc’s office and tell them to fax over his notes, here is the number, and here is the person to address it to.
The girl there said it might be about a week. I said, “A week? All you have to do is run it thru a fax machine.” I got this whiny but lethargic “Yeah, I know, I know…”
So a week later, she calls me up and says they called in the prescription for Byetta for me. I said, “Oh, it was approved??”
“No…”
“What do you mean ‘no’”?
She told me he refused to do it, and that he said "let her pay for it…"
I said, "Do you know how much Byetta is? It is $250 without insurance. I called the pharmacy."
She said, "Oh, I’m sorry (like she really even meant it) and I said, Look, stop messing around with me. If he really wanted me on this drug, that is all he had to do. Now, without him sending my file in, then I can’t get this, because I can;t afford it."
More “Oh, I am sorry.”
I wish these doctors would stop decking around with us. Either they want to help us, or they don’t and they just go and do irresponsible stuff like calling in prescription when you asked them to get it preauthorized.
I am trying to find one doc on my plan who knows about diabetes. There are not a lot of endocrinologists here, and I’d like one who had one reasonable bone in his body.
I have used up my patience with these guys. I have been given the run around, and I am tired of having to SUPER ADVOCATE for myself.
They don’t care if I get kidney damage.
I have showed them the microvascularization on my legs, and they don’t even know what it is. So I tell them, because I work in medicine, and heck, even I know that one. So I can’t come off pompous, and I have to treat them with kid gloves, because doctors don’t want to be overstepped.
But why can’t they get the drugs right? Why do they tell me I don’t have diabetes, but the tables tell me I do?
And what the heck is a MILD case of diabetes? Is that like a mild case of cancer?
Will a mild case of diabetes cause me to gain more weight, become more fatigued, and evenly ruin my kidneys and vascular system?
I am so fed up with these guys. I need to find one doctor who knows what he is doing. Maybe it is where I am living. You’d think they would have seen enough diabetics, and it is a big disease. I don’t have Krukenpubenderingling Syndrome or something.
So this is my rant to doctors: If you don’t know about diabetes, send me to someone who does, and stop wasting my time.
