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Month: February 2010

Fired Up Friday – High Cost of Diabetes Test Strips

Chris Stocker 7 Comments

This week’s edition of Fired Up Friday is something that I know fires up everybody.  The high cost of diabetes testing strips.  Supplies in general are expensive, but I’m just trying to focus on the strips themselves because I think we use more of these than any other supplies.  Do a quick search for “cost of diabetic test strips” or “how much does it cost to make diabetes test strips” and look at the results.  Here is a screen shot from one of those searches and I am amazed by what I find.

What did you see?  Did you see anything that actually tells me how much it costs to make a test strip?  I didn’t see anything.  So, I am not going to speak and argue about things that are not fact.  So a fact is, I don’t know exactly how much it costs to make a test strip.  From the automation process of it, I would say that it can’t cost anymore then, let’s say, $0.05 to make one strip.  If this is the case, then why does one box of 100 strips at a retail pharmacy cost on average, $100?  That is $1 per strip.  That is a 95% profit.  What business has a 95% profit, seriously?

To the manufacturers, you have made enough money off of us already.  It’s not like we are going anywhere anytime soon, we are still going to use your products.  Let’s look at the economics behind it, and let’s take a look at a dollar store.  How can a dollar store make money by selling things for $1 that even Wal-Mart sells for $5.00?  Easily, the quantity they sell, (there are other reasons as well, such as being bulk and buying short dated).  They can sell 5 things at $1, and Wal-Mart sells 1 at $5, they both make the same amount of money essentially.  So how can diabetes manufacturers work like this?

This is very simple.  Cut your prices in half and you will sell twice as more.  A lot of people have switched from using the top brands to a cheaper brand because the strips are 50-60% cheaper, and they work pretty much the same way.  I’ve used just about every meter out there and they give me the same results, so get off your high horse, especially that “One” company that thinks everything they “Touch” is gold!  Not that I am pointing anybody out or anything.  Not like they will read the “Life” of a diabetic and “Scan” this blog to read what people have to say.  Get over yourself!

Moving on.  Testing yourself and seeing good results is an addiction.  It really is.  When I am trying to manage my sugar the best, I test 12-16 times a day.  So what does this mean?  It means that I will buy twice the amount of boxes of strips if the prices were cut in half.  I would continue to spend the same amount of money, and I wouldn’t go and buy a cheaper brand, I would stick with your top name brand.  By you not cutting your prices, you are losing business.  Do you not see that?  I think a lot of these big shots at the top manufacturers were too hung over or stoned to go to their Economics 101 class in college.

I dare to see a top manufacturer cut your prices in half, go $0.30 per strip.  I know it would make me want to use the product, and I know I’m not the only one to think so.  I can bet that your company’s new price structure would be the hot topic of the diabetic community.  But are you listening?  Are you out there Freestyle?  Hello Bayer? Those arrogant guys, you there too, or you too busy golfing and playing polo somewhere?  I know Roche has brought the diabetic community before and plans on doing it again this year at Children with Diabetes, but not too sure about the others.

Show me some goodwill on your end, and I show you a customer for life!

I’ll be here waiting for your next move, but I won’t be holding my breathe.

What say you?

Not So Great Life of a Diabetic Lately

Chris Stocker

If you follow The Life of a Diabetic on Twitter, then this post is not going to sound like much of a surprise to most of you.  My blood sugars have been crazy over the past 2 months, even 3.  I haven’t seen my endocrinologist since October, which I was seeing her every month for 6 straight months so I can make changes quite frequently.  There are multiple reasons for these higher blood sugars, but today they come to an end.  Actually, yesterday they did, I didn’t have a blood sugar over 170 all day.  Screw diabetes!  Let’s get into some of the reasons.

  1. Diet – Or should I say lack there of.  I haven’t been following any sort of diet at all.  It’s just been eat whatever is made for dinner, or eat wherever Amanda and I feel like going out to eat.  When I did go out to eat, I wasn’t ordering anything healthy, plus I would eat Amanda’s leftovers instead of taking them home, sometimes.  Well my solution to this has been portion control.  I haven’t been eating too much healthier, but I have been eating less, only one serving.  At night, I then am eating a PB&J and that holds me off and also keeps my blood sugars stable.
  2. Exercise – Once again, lack there of.  The portion control helps some, but added exercise would make things a lot better and also help me lose more weight, which means less insulin, which means the longer I have to wait before I buy more of it.  I have gone back to doing little things to get more exercise, that you may not even think about.  For example, when I did laundry last night, instead of bringing upstairs all of my dress shirts, I walked them up one at a time and walked up and down the stairs about 10-15 times.  I park a little further from the store and make myself walk a further distance.  These little things will add up to big things for me.
  3. Lack of Testing – I know that I am running low on strips, so I have been testing less.  I always told myself that I wouldn’t do that, but I am.  I still test 4-5 times a day, so it’s not that bad, but I don’t catch the guys until it is too late.  I can’t pick up on trends of my blood sugar that way.  I will be getting a full 90 day supply of strips next month, so I have enough to get my by until then.  The only problem is that I’m not so sure how accurate the meter is because I don’t have control solution.  And I must say, I was a big fan of Home Diagnostics products (True2Go, TrueRead etc.), but lately as much as I have been complaining about their product, I haven’t heard a single thing from them.  Where are you on social media and tracking your company brand?  Bad, bad, bad job.  In fact, 3 of their competitors have contacted me because I was tweeting about not liking HDI.  (Being a social media consultant, I tend to prefer businesses that are doing social media right).
  4. Max Bolusing – Well, since I haven’t been testing, and then I haven’t been eating healthy, and I haven’t been counting carbs, what else am I going to do?  Max bolus of 25.0 and then eat to the bolus or if my sugar was high, which I’m assuming it was over the past couple of months, then that would include the correction bolus that I would need.

This is not something that I am proud of at all, in fact, I am quite embarrassed by it.  But, what can I do about it now?  I can’t change the past couple months, but what I can do is continue to get better at doing the right things and keep moving forward.

Please Update My URL for Legal Purposes

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

This post is going to be pretty short, but it is extremely important.  As some of you may know I used to blog on a different URL before I switched over to this one in about October.  Well the url that I used to blog under was owned by the company that I formerly worked for.  Long story short, I can’t have you all linking to that anymore.

So if you do have a blogroll, please, please, please update it.  There are some legal reasons behind this that I’m not going to get into with the blog.  If you do want to know details, e-mail me and we can discuss it, but let’s just say that I can’t have things linking to that blog and still call this blog The Life of a Diabetic.

I appreciate your help with this and if you stumble upon someone’s blog that still has the old one, please ask them to switch it.

Thank you all in advance.

Finally My Cobra Coverage Questions Answered

Chris Stocker 6 Comments

After having Cobra for 3 months, and not even knowing it, I have finally figured it all out.  I was so confused about the whole situation and couldn’t get a clear answer for a while.  I called Ceridian Benefits, who runs the Cobra program to get some answers.  Here are the questions that I wanted answers to:

  • When does my coverage start?
  • Am I up to date on my payments?
  • Am I covered now?
  • Why does my invoice show a payment for December when it’s not February?
  • What card do I use, what is my member ID?
  • How do I get my diabetes supplies?

Well, let’s go into each of these questions, and if you ever had questions about Cobra, I hope this post helps you out.

When does my coverage start?

Well this one was a pretty simple answer, it never ended.  I did not know that from the day that I was fired, and the insurance rep called me and I told him that I was going to opt in for Cobra that he continued my service as is.  He did this to make sure that there was no break in coverage and that I had the continuing of coverage within the 63 days.

Am I up to date on my payments?

I sent in a check to pay for December, January, and February, but I haven’t seen the check cleared yet so I was a little worried that it wasn’t paid.  When I spoke to the customer service rep, she assured me that the system showed paid and she gave me a confirmation number of the payment, so I guess it’s time to figure that out with the bank.

Am I covered now?

This is was somewhat of a repetitive question, but I had to double check.  Yes my coverage has been active since December, which I would have known that when I went to the clinic for the clogged Eustachian Tube.

What card do I use, what is my member ID?

This is the one that I was the most confused with because I wasn’t sure how it worked.  I was waiting for a card to get sent to me that is why I didn’t think that my coverage had started yet.  The reason that I didn’t get a card sent to me is because you are supposed to use the same exact card and member ID number that you had with the insurance company.  So, since I had insurance through Aetna, I will continue to use that card for coverage.

How do I get my diabetes supplies?

This is just like the last question.  I still get my supplies from the same way that I would get them previously through Aetna. This is great for my insulin, and for testing strips because each of those is just a $90 co-pay for 90 day supply.  The insulin pump supplies are where it gets tricky and pretty much sucks.  Since pump supplies are considered durable medical equipment, I have to meet a $1,000 deductible first.  After that $1,000 is up then Aetna will cover it, but only up to a $2,000 maximum!  $2,000 maximum for pump supplies, are you serious?  That’s like a one month supply with the way that the supply companies charge the insurance companies (trust me I know from being on the inside of the supply company).

Well this customer service rep that I spoke to was a lot of help.  Other insurance companies should take notes on customer service because these people are great. I spoke to about 3 different people in my calls to them and they have each been excellent.  I hope this had helped any of you that have had questions about Cobra and continuing insurance coverage previously.

Life of a Diabetic Weekend Recap

Chris Stocker

First, I want to thank you all for your feedback, RT’s, and comments from the Fired Up Friday post about drink options.  I am glad to hear that I am not just being a drama queen (or would it be king?) and overreacting to something like this.  Anywho, the weekend was great!  It of course went by way too fast, but I accomplished a lot.  Friday night, Amanda and I were going to see that Shutter Island movie but decided to wait a week or two so there is not as many people there when we go to see it.  I hate being in a crowded movie theater, I don’t like tight spaces.  Plus, since I’m diabetic, my blood sugar can get high as we all know and I will need to run to the bathroom a million times during the movie.  Since, we decided not to go that night, we didn’t do anything.  My blood sugars were still a little high all night Friday, in the 175-190 range.

Saturday morning was the WordCamp Miami conference, so I was up at 6:00 a.m.  I got my stuff ready the night before because I knew I would forget either my meter, or extra insulin, or a couple extra infusion sets, etc.  The conference was a lot of fun and I learned a lot more about WordPress then I initially knew going down there, so it was well worth it.  If you are interested in that type of geeky, web stuff as well, then read my other blog as well, Chris Stocker, Inc. because I don’t talk too much about on it here.  Saturday night we headed up to West Palm Beach for the Opening Night of the Waterfront.  It was basically just some streets blocked off and lots of food, beer, live entertainment.  I’m not so sure about the exact history of it, but I gave you a link if you’re interested, but it was fun.  Amanda and I ate at some Mexican place and the insulin didn’t seem to take, so that type 1 diabetes thing I have made the sugars a little high, about 275.

Sunday morning was another little community thing that Amanda, her brother, and myself went to.  It was in Lake Worth, FL and it was some outdoor thing where artists and kids were drawing on the street with chalk, it was actually pretty damn cool.  I’m having trouble with my camera uploading things, so I will post some of the pictures tomorrow from it.  Other than that, it was time to go home and get to work.  I have a few blogs that I am almost finished designing for clients and a couple of other websites that are still in process.  I’m getting a little stressed from the work, but after these couple projects are finished it will slow down because there aren’t any other large projects lined up right now, but I prefer to be extremely busy like that.  The busier I am, the more of these I drink.Rip It Sugar Free Energy Drink - Diabetes

Finally, for the bad news.  My ear is still clogged up pretty bad, so I am going back to the doctor on Tuesday to just make sure that I don’t have an infection or something else worse going on.  I found a place that will accept the insurance, so it won’t be as much money to pay for this visit.  I really appreciate all your help and suggestions.  The Neti Pot worked miracles, but it doesn’t keep it un-clogged, it always seems to clog back up after I use it, or sometimes it doesn’t even work.  It’s just becoming frustrating right now.  But, just another obstacle to overcome when you have a life of a diabetic

Fired Up Friday – Limited Drink Options at Restaurants

Chris Stocker 6 Comments

Every time I go to a restaurant, I tend to get a little mad.  There may be a few reasons why, but primarily it is because I may not be in the mood to drink water, diet Coke / Pepsi or un-sweetened iced tea.  But, guess what, those are the only options.  With so many diabetics in this country don’t you think we deserve to have just as many options of beverages than people who are not living with diabetes have?  Not only people with diabetes, but all the people who are trying to diet and make the right choices when eating out have minimal choices.

I have always wanted to start a petition to force restaurants to have more options.  I’ve been told by people that if I want diet soda then I probably shouldn’t be eating there anyway.  Let’s take an example of this.  If I walk into a fast food joint because I’m in the mood for it, and order some unhealthy greasy burger and fries, ok let’s be realistic, 2 burgers, but I order a diet coke.  Should I be looked at weird because I’m getting a diet coke to go along with my 1,500 calorie meal?  No, not at all because I am choosing to take about 10 units less of insulin by drinking the diet coke.  Therefore, I should have a few more options of drinks.

Let’s take a look at some of the people who are doing it right and why I will choose their place to eat over others.

  • Chick-Fil-A – I will spend more money for a chicken sandwich here than other places because they offer sugar free lemonade and diet Dr. Pepper.  I love diet Dr. Pepper, it is the only diet soda that I used to drink before I was even diabetic, because I can’t taste the difference in the two.
  • Quiznos (some) – Why would I rather pay an extra dollar for my footlong?  Easily, they offer un-sweetened, Sprite Zero, diet Mtn. Dew, and various bottled beverages that are zero carb or diet.
  • Pei-Wei – There is more than one reason why I enjoy this place, but I spend more money on their food, for one the quality of food is better, but also because they have two different flavors on un-sweetened tea, they also have Fresca, which is a great alternative to diet Sprite all the time.

These are just a few of the places that have won my customer loyalty all because they offer drinks other than diet coke and un-sweetened iced tea.  If there are any restaurant owners / managers out there reading this right now, did you just read that?  I have been won over by places because of their beverage options, not because your burger is a ¼ larger, or you have extra sauce or your foot long is only $5.00(even though you charge almost $3.00 for a combo which ends up being more expensive than your competition, I see your trick).  I understand that I am in the minority here and you have to make business decisions based upon the majority.  Put, are you really going to spend that much extra money by eliminating 1 flavor or regular soda and switching it out with diet?  I doubt not.

I have gone as far as bringing in my own drink into a restaurant because they don’t have a type of drink that I like.  They didn’t have a problem with it, they just charged me for the cost of purchasing a drink of theirs.

How do you all feel about this?  Am I just over-reacting to this situation?

Eating Healthy for Diabetes Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Being diabetic, we all know that we need to eat healthy and exercise.  Well why is it so difficult to actually follow through on this?  I have said plenty of times that this is the time that I am going to cut back on my bad eating habits and increase the good eating habits.  I can’t just stop eating bad one day and then switch to eating good, it just doesn’t happen.  The easiest way for me to get back into eating habits is to eat the things I have been eating, but cut down on the portion control.  Eventually, I will not require as much food to move away from the table and I can begin eating healthier things.  The other bad part of eating unhealthy is the amount of money that I spend eating out.  I eat out for lunch on average 3 days a week.  One day, I will eat bad and spend about $10 and the other 2 days are split between Subway and Quiznos, which are both about $5 each.  That right there is $20 a week, $80 a month, almost $1,000 a year.  I could pay off a credit card in a year with that amount of money!

So, yesterday was the tipping point for me.  I went to the store and bought stuff to make my own Sammie’s and oven roasted chicken breast subs and flat bread salads.  I paid about the same amount of money, but will have enough food to last me about 2 weeks worth of lunches.  I used to always say that it costs so much more to eat healthier, well not exactly.  If you do it properly, then it doesn’t.  Living with type 1 diabetes brings a lot of expensive situations, but eating does not have to be one of them.  I bought a package of pork tenderloins (6) for $5.50, a box of boil in a bag brown rice $2.50, package of steamable veggies $1.99 and made 5 days worth of lunch for under $10!  When I go out for lunch and buy stir-fry it costs me $10 for one meal.

On a side note, here are some pictures from Daytona and a few videos, hope you enjoy.

Daytona 500 National Guard Jimmie Johnson CarNational Guard Car

Diabetes in Daytona

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

This past weekend I went up to Daytona Beach, FL for the Daytona 500 race.  This was my second consecutive year going.  I met a guy up there who said that he has gone to 42 straight, this year’s was the 52nd so he only missed the first 10 races.  That sounded like a great idea to me, and I think I am going to do it.  Amanda, her brother, friend and myself all packed up Friday morning / afternoon and made sure we had everything ready to go for about a 3:00 departure for the 3 hour drive.  Everyone was packed to go and I of course was doing the diabetic thing and triple checking.  Having type 1 diabetes isn’t always the easiest thing to pack for.  I made sure that I had everything that I would need and we were set to leave.  I tested before I got in the car, 345, not a good start.

I had eaten two bagels for breakfast that morning, I know probably not the best idea.  It was about 3:30 and I didn’t eat lunch and there was some Little Ceasar’s pizza, so of course I ate some.  I bolused enough for the correction and then again for the pizza and I felt like I was going to be just fine.  About two hours later I tested again and I was down to 180, not bad at all since I ate pizza.  We finally arrived in Daytona and were going to get Subway for dinner.  Blood sugars didn’t go so well Friday night.  At one point it was up to 425.  This high blood sugar gave me the opportunity to educate some body on diabetes however.  The kid we were staying with didn’t really know anything about diabetes, he just knew that his grandmother had it and that his mom had told him that it skips generations.  Let the lecture begin.

I was explaining to him that it is difficult for anybody with type 1 diabetes to drink because when you get low, you feel light headed and woozy and when your blood sugar goes high, you pee a lot.  So, since we were heading out to a bar, he realized the difficulties and the confusions that can come of this and the dangers behind it.  Throughout the night, the blood sugars came down and I was ready to go Saturday morning (except for the little headache I had from the night before.)

Saturday night led to another conversation with this same kid about diabetes, but not about drinking this time.  It was just diabetes in general.  I explained how I became diabetic [or how I was born with it, according to Dr. DipShit(OZ)].  I took him through the whole night, the 858 blood sugar, the issues, the problems, ways to avoid problems, and discussed with him about the skipping a generation issue.  I am not a scientist or doctor, but I didn’t think that was true because there is plenty of people that I know whose parents are diabetic and so are they, but I don’t know, correct me if I’m wrong please.  After the conversations with him, it felt great!  I love teaching people about diabetes or eliminating their ignorance or mis-understandings about it.  Explaining the insulin pump is always the best and then asking them if they want to test their sugar is funny.

The answer is always the same, “Hell no, get out of here”

Back From Daytona – Back to Work

Chris Stocker

I am back from Daytona after a really long weekend.  You have not seen me on Twitter, Facebook, or blogging much and there is a reason.  I just have honestly not had enough time to be on there.  I have been more busy these past few weeks then I have ever been in my life.  The worst part is that I don’t even know what the heck I have been doing that is making me that busy.  The main thing is that I have been sick, so I haven’t been staying up late because I just don’t have the energy to do it.  3 day weekend in Daytona took up a lot of time as well.  I am working longer hours on-site so I don’t really have much access to Twitter and blogging while there.  I use my phone from time to time to check what others are saying, but find it hard to actually type up a Tweet.

Onto some more important things.  I am running out of testing strips.  I have about 25 Freestyle Lite strips left, which are my favorite, and I have about 200 TrueTest or TrueRead, or True something, I don’t even know.  Whichever of the Home Diagnostic’s True brand goes with the True2Go.  I like that meter, but not as a primary meter because it doesn’t have all of the other features in the Freestyle Lite that I like.  Like I said before, I love the Contour USB, but the strips are just too expensive for me to continue to use it.  I am grateful and happy that Bayer was kind enough to send a sample to me to try out.  I still haven’t gotten to that blog post yet either, but that was more or less technical difficulties.  I couldn’t get the graphs to work, it was taking too long on my computer at the time, and never got back to it.

Normally, in times like this I take a weekend to sit down and plan out everything that I need to do for the next couple weeks to get caught up and then also get ahead.  This past weekend I couldn’t, this upcoming weekend I will be attending WordCamp Miami all day Saturday.  Friday and Saturday night will give me some time to get caught up on things.  Also, the only thing on this Sunday is the race, so I can do work during that.  I just can’t get too far behind or else I am going to be screwed.  One of the main things that I have on my to do list this week is to figure out my whole supply situation and when I am going to refill and also what brand of strips I want to use.  To be blunt about it, I am going to use whichever brand I can easily get to that costs me the least amount of money.  Over the years I have used just about every single meter that is out there and they all basically do the same exact thing.

Overall, I am feeling better.  My right ear is still clogged and not even the Neti Pot is working now.  I am scared that I am permenately deaf out of that ear because I don’t get the pressure feeling in there that I was getting before.  From time to time I do feel it trying to unclog itself, so that is the only thing that is giving me a positive outlook on it.  Well, enough of this post, it is time to go to bed.  I am typing this Monday night and posting it Tuesday morning.

Have a great day.

Neti Pot Is My New Best Friend

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

After over a week of feeling like crap everyday, having high blood sugars, not being able to hear, coughing, being stuffy, and just plain ole miserable, I am happy to say that I am back.  I am disappointed in the route that had to be taken to get here, but whatever, it’s in the past and there is nothing to do about it now.  Let’s dive into this adventure.

I told you that last week I went to the clinic because of the clogged ear and cough and throat, etc.  Well basically after paying out of pocket for the visit ($130), 2 packages of Mucinex D ($50) and loss of sleep from coughing all night long I still wasn’t fixed yet.  So I decided to spend $14.99 and purchase a Neti Pot.  After about 2 seconds of using it, my left ear was unclogged.  After using it a second time, the right ear was unclogged.  So, spending $180 on doctor and medicine didn’t do anything, but if I would have just purchased the $15 item from the beginning then everything would have been ok.

My right ear is still a little clogged up, but it is getting better everytime that I use the Neti Pot, so it should be ok.  I don’t really like to say that I wasted the money on the doctor’s visit, even though that is how I feel.  Reason I don’t like to say that is because I wasn’t really sure what was wrong with me or what was going on.  I wanted to take every precaution because there is way too many weird things that go on out there and people have no idea what is going on and think it is just something small.  I ignored a sickness for 3 months 6 years ago when I went into the emergency room with an 858 blood sugar, I don’t want to ever live through something like that again.