I love when people who don’t have diabetes try and chastise us or try and make things harder on us for making mistakes. “Its your disease, take some responsibility!” Its like they say people do their best mothering before having a child (which I’m almost certainly guilty of). Even when people have 1 thing to remember, mistakes happen, but we have so many things to remember.
I’m in a period of increasing bitterness about the obliviousness of the people around me. I’m trying to work my way through it, but it bursts through at random, inappropriate times.
Don’t listen to them,Becky. I’ve not had an experience such as you’ve mentioned, with someone chastising me or making me feel uncomfortable, due to my diabetes and I’m quite open about having diabetes…since 1978. Think of it like this: I’m sure you have read about celebs and others complaining about the mean things people say to them on social media. And I always think: “so stay off of social media!!”. It won’t kill anyone to stay away from things that irritate them, like Twitter, Instagram, etc. Being on those platforms a lot is an obsession rather than a necessity.
In your case, don’t engage, turn your head and ears, or start a different conversation, unrelated to diabetes.
I’ve been really lucky to have been given insulin and my first Dexcom even, back when I couldn’t get insurance (living in AZ and being self-employed before the ACA). I recently did a trade through a FB group, since I had several boxes of pods left after switching to the Tslim, and it worked out great! Someone else had lots of extra Novolog and really needed pods… I love when we can work things out like that!
No, but I’ve tried. I tried to donate my stash of 70/30 Nph/R insulin when i finally got insurance and could afford the prescription stuff, but couldn’t find anyone who wanted it. I wound up throwing them away when they expired. I currently also have a massive stash of one touch verio test strips that I would love to donate, but can’t find anyone local who wants them, either.
When I had 300 One Touch strips left when I got the whiz-bang Medtronic 630 w/communicating glucose tester, I gave the OT strips away. Now, my insurance no longer covers whiz-bang strips, so i’m back to OT! May be irrelevant—just signed up for Medicare BCD+.
I have taken unopened/unexpired insulin pens and OmniPods to my endo—fair trade, she gives me pens for when I travel as pump back-up.
I notice signs around Tucson with “Cash for diabetic test strips” + a phone number.
Not interested personally (probably a secret code for a fight club!), but do these show up elsewhere?
When Medtronic advised that they could not get paid from my Medicare Advantage Plan for my Guardian 3 sensors, I was charged $345 for a box of 5. However. I was able to buy two boxes off of E-Bay for $200.
For a period, my son was without insurance and I sent him several canisters of test strips. He advised that he was able to buy several vials of insulin off of Craig’s list to tide him over.
I was reading this and got to the part about “take responsibility” and just remember I forgot that I had to get to the pharmacy before 9 to get my prescription. (Fortunately, it isn’t “life threatening”) but my mother is always saying: “Why do you wait till the last minute before you call it in?” I have to give her that one because she’s right. This is the first time though I completely forgot to watch my time. Crap…
MOOBM, oddly enough (not really—thanks, Google/Facebook/Amazon!), I started getting offers in my feed to buy strips after I posted that. Apparently, it’s a thriving online market for those with lots of strips (paid for by insurance) that won’t expire in the next 6 months!
Becky, I am nearly finished with a book about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) . The experience you mentioned on the post certainly would qualify. It has given me great comfort in understanding some of the behaviors I engage in now that were in response to crazy situations when I was young.
I am super aware that a lot of my behavior is not “normal”. I’m not sure at this point what is just natural oddness and what is a result of childhood trauma from various sources. My mom says she knew that my behavior was not typical when I was 6 years old, but God only knows whether that’s true or just because my mom doesn’t honestly like me very much.
I know my behavior concerning doctors is not healthy and comes from childhood and teenage trauma (why I trust endos more than any other doctors). My problem is being aware of my issues doesn’t make them any easier to deal with. After 21 years of diabetes, (and even longer dealing with my mom) I’m still not sure of the best way to live in order to both stay sane and not upset the people around me. I dont think theres an absolute answer, so I just try and do better every day.
Back when I was on shots I got up one morning and went to take my injection. I had just bought some new insulin; I was completely out of the old. But when I went to draw up the shot, I realized the insulin they gave me was not what I had ordered. The label was correct, but the insulin was different. I had to wait until the pharmacy opened to get it exchanged. I was late for work that day. It could have been much worse.
Wait a minute, this may sound selfish but this could be mutually beneficial if in those countries if the same insulin cost a quarter of what it does here it would make more sense then just send them money to buy enough for both of us and send half back to me.
They get it free and I am at half price minus shipping and handling.
I don’t have the skills to make any of this happen but maybe someone reading this that does could do something with the idea above and make something of it. The sponsor a diabuddy in another land program or something.
