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First, I will admit to some FUD (Fear, Uncertainly and Dismay) that they were bought by Abbott.

Here’s what I like about Therasense. If you call freaked out because your meter is acting weird, and you are a new diabetic, do they do not treat you like you are stupid. FYI: Lifescan did treat me like I was stupid when I couldn’t get their One Touch Ultra Smart to work — and I wasn’t a new user and I wasn’t freaked out. I went through 8 test strips to get one blood test to work. I do have a One Touch Ultra just in case something happens with Freestyle. (Long story, but Animas is handing out free Ultra Smarts). The secret — you can’t bleed to much with their meters and test strips.

The other thing about the Freestyle, is that the test strip doesn’t care if you don’t bleed enough or you bleed too much. If you don’t bleed enough, you have time to give it enough blood to make the meter happy — yeah the blasted things are vampires.

Every single dealing I’ve had with Therasense Freestyle has been cool. Well, they don’t do email as well as I would like, but they do phone really well. (I have trouble with doing phones since I’m a classroom teacher who has students from 8:00 – 4:00) The good news, is they do phone outside that window.

Medtronic MiniMed: Protect My Child

Unfortunately this is by Mini-Med. Sorry, but after watching the insulin-pumpers list since June, and reading the archives back through March, these are not people I want to to trust with my life.

They’ve apparently screwed up every new device they released this year.

The Paradigm system only works with properitory infusion sets. (FYI — this is why I always have hated Macs).

The BD Monitor that links with the Paradigm 512 and 712 gives off error messages on 3 out of 5 test strips (okay, maybe it’s 2 out of 5), to just about everyone who has used it. The only people who don’t seem to follow some really bizarre instructions.

They sold a bunch of insulin pumps as water tight (or was that proof — there is some difference between the terms), then had most of them fail — giving too much insuiln in most cases — as soon as they got damp. I was just thinking about a pump then, and we have a pool so I was sure glad not to have gotten one of those, and have an Animas that is water proof.

A group of people have been harassed by the company for bills they were told had been paid by their insurance companies or were told were forgiven as long as 4 years ago. Usually co-pays.

A large number of people hate their new insulin set — the Quick Set Plus. While I attribute a lot of that feeling to a “who moved my cheese feeling”, I feel their pain, as I tried SpectraRX sets and hated them for many of the same reasons — and I really wanted to like those sets.

It seems it won’t be available for a couple of months, so hopefully Therasense’s Navigator will be on the close horizon.

And it is definately NOT a company I want to use to deliver me a closed loop system.

I’ve never been fond of government sponsored research and am even less so right now.

I honestly feel that diabetes research, heart disease research, etc. should be privately funded, and not funded by the government.

I even feel that way about space research these days — it was different when it was a defense related thing, but it isn’t now. In fact, I just said to my husband that putting money into going to Mars right now, is like buying a plasm TV when you can’t make the mortgage payment.

I think we’re much better off if we, as a government spend money for educating everyone rather than working on special interest projects. Of course, I’m a teacher … but I wouldn’t be teaching in public school if I didn’t believe that.

Got a letter from the state insurance board, almost didn’t want to open it because I was afraid that it might tell me that I was finally and unrevokable denied on reimbursement for the pump.

But it wasn’t that. Just told me they were working on it and who was in charge of the case.
The same nurse who I’d talked to on the phone.

So how DO you get a pump, after you have decided to get a pump?

If you are a lucky you are going to an endo who will guide through the whole process. I would suggest that you look at ALL the pump companies though, and not just pick something your doctor likes. YOU are wearing it, NOT him.

If however, you are dealing with a primary care physician and they haven’t done it before, here are some hints.

And try not to be on an HMO.

Well, first, your doctor has to agree, and write a letter of medical necessity. However, the pump company will help you with that. They have done a bunch of these before, and they know how to do it.

You will either get accepted or denied. If you get denied, then you need to decide if you can afford the pump and its supplies. My insurance company denied both, which is why I have filed a complaint with the state. The state of Texas requires that pump supplies be paid.

If you can afford the pump and supplies — and I will warn you, I’m spending about $600 every 3 months on supplies — then you will buy everything yourself.
Here again, I advise using the pump company.

If you get denied and you think you shouldn’t have, and you can afford it, go ahead and get the pump like I did, and just keep filing paperwork at them. It’s fine to take a few weeks to take a breath, I did that several times, but keep at them.

I still haven’t gotten mine paid, but I have given up. I’ll keep everyone abreast with one is going on with this and I would love comments from others on it.

Here’s where I am at.

I’ve got a complaint in to the state insurance board, and I have an independent review in to the insurance company.

You have to think before you get out of bed. It can get kinda of weird, because my CPAP hose will often be wrapped around my neck, and sometimes the pump gets wrapped in it too, especially when I have on a really long tube. (They come in different sizes, and I usually wear the shortest, but I’ve been having trouble with those sites).

So when you wake up, the first thing you do is locate everything.

Showering can be interesting, I do one of two things, hook the pump via the clip to my Diabetes necklace or disconnect.

When I get in the hot tub, I disconnect. Same thing at the gym for the shower/whirlpool, sauna, etc.

I usually wear it when I swim — though swimming isn’t likely for a few months.

I do wear mine in my bra, and am hoping to make it cross town to a lingerie place that does custom alterations to their bras and plan to get them to sew a pocket in my pump. I should see about getting a pocket sewn in all my bras, actually. That would make life easier and slightly less lumpy.

I find it gets bumped off less often if I wear it in my bra and that I get the site pulled off less often when it is there too.

Anyway, it’s not bad, and better than injections.