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Tag: insulin

MMM Insulin

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

There is nothing better than opening up a box full of insulin.  It’s a huge relief when you open it and you see 16 boxes of vials of insulin.  This is the earliest that I re-ordered my insulin, because I am going to be travel a lot over the next few weeks, so I wanted to make sure that I had it before I started to travel.

This upcoming weekend I am going to the Keys to go camping.  I have only been camping once or twice since I’ve had diabetes.  It is a lot different of a vacation to be camping than it is to be at a hotel or visiting home because you are constantly outside.  We aren’t doing the “camping” where you have running water and electricity, and fans and all the stuff that you shouldn’t have when you are camping.  We have a tent, a small grill, fishing poles, sleeping bags, lanterns and some fire wood.

I am taking 3 vials of insulin, a whole box of infusion sets, 3 reservoirs, 2 site injectors and 50 test strips.  I think that should be enough for Friday-Sunday.

The following Saturday I am leaving to fly home to PA for a few days and then I am going to NYC for a conference on the 19-21.  Anytime that I go to a conference somewhere up north, I like to try and take a trip to PA as well to visit family, especially since I have a new little niece up there as well.

Well, this is a short post, but I am trying to get a lot of things done in the next few days before I go on the camping trip.  I hope I don’t run into any pythons or Gambian pouch rats, if you don’t know what they are, read this!

High Blood Sugars at the Hockey Game

Chris Stocker

Last night I went to the Florida Panthers vs. Washington Capitals hockey game. It was embarrassing to be a Panthers fan last night because they got their butts handed to them, to speak in nice terms. My account rep had upgraded my seats for me for that game so we were sitting in the Lexus Club level where the food options are a lot larger than at the regular concession booths. This isn’t sounding good for somebody with type 1 diabetes who just had food court Chinese food about 2 hours prior to the game. Can you see where this is leading?

Amanda was hungry, so I told her to get whatever she wanted and I would just finish what she didn’t eat because I wasn’t really hungry. I tested my blood sugar before she ate and I was at 307. High, yes, but I wear an insulin pump, I can correct that easily. I take a correction bolus and wait about 5 minutes before I do my little insulin check. About 10-12 times a day I will rub the infusion set and then smell my fingers for insulin. Amanda tells me that I need to be less obvious when I do it, because I look really weird, which I agree, I probably do.

When I felt the infusion set, it was soaked, so I knew I was going to smell that disgusting smell of insulin, and I did! In a normal situation I would have freaked out and been worried that my sugar is going to stay high. Normally, I would just bolus like 25 units knowing that not all of it was going to get absorbed. Luckily, I had inserted an infusion set on my backside a few nights ago, but since my sugar was high at the time I put a second one in on my stomach. When my sugar is high, infusion sets on the butt don’t work. So I didn’t take that one out, so I was able to hook up the tubing to that.

Now the hardest part is trying to figure out how much insulin my body actually did absorb. I bolused at about 90% and when I went to bed I was at 195 and woke up at 156.

Now for a quick update on my cough and ear thing that I have had going on forever, it seems like. My ear is still clogged, the nasal spray I was prescribed doesn’t work and when I try to clear them myself, it just makes them more clogged. I am going to try the Neti Pot again tonight and see what that does for me. I have an appointment on Monday, so we will see how that goes.

How Many Hours in a Lifetime Wasted On Hold with Insurance Companies?

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

You know how there are all these studies out there and all these dumb little facts?  Well I have one for somebody to figure out.  The average amount of time in a lifetime that a diabetic waits on hold with an insurance company.  I’m guessing I can save pretty much half of my life this way.  Today was worth the wait however.  I had to first call my insurance company and find out the phone number to my mail order pharmacy.  My insurance had switched in November, the day before I was fired, and I still have coverage through them, so I wanted to get an insulin re-order before that time.  It took the guy on the phone 20 minutes to basically just give me the phone number to the mail order pharmacy.

Once I called them it became better.  I spoke to a lady who walked me through the whole process.  She recommended that I have my doctor call in my prescription because she said, “in all honesty, the fax will get tied up in an incoming box until probably tomorrow.”  For once, somebody at an insurance company told me the truth about something.  She will probably lose her job for saying such a thing.  She gave me a phone number, fax number, what exactly to have the nurse say to the person on the phone, everything.  After having a nice discussion with her, I then called my doctor’s office.  I explained the situation to her and explained why I missed my last visit and why I don’t know the exact date of my next visit.  I will explain that here tomorrow, it’s kind of interesting believe it or not.  Anywho, I asked my doctor’s office to call and leave me a voicemail once this was all completed, well I received the voicemail, so I am happy.

The only scary part is that I am going to PA next week, so I asked for the insulin to be delivered there.  Which now I regret because I have enough insulin for about a month, so I could have just had it shipped here and stored in the fridge.  Now I have to have it shipped into the freezing cold weather, and then bring it back with my on the plane.  It goes into my carry on, so it is going to take up a pretty fair amount of space on there, so we shall see how that turns out next Sunday.  Well, time to sign off for the night again.  I need to try and get my posts done in the morning again instead of 10:00 p.m.

MMM….Insulin

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

MMM….Insulin.  That’s what I said to myself today around 10:00 a.m. when a co-worker came up to my desk and said, there’s a package downstairs for you.  I was starting to get extremely nervous because about 20 minutes before that, my pump beeped and said “Low Reservoir” and I was completely out of insulin.  I am supposed to get a phone call when my insulin is shipped, but I never received a phone call, so I was really worried because it was Friday and I knew it wouldn’t be delivered on the weekend.  I finally received that call about 3 hours after the insulin was delivered, what good was that?

Once that new shipment of insulin came I took out 1 vial to let it settle to room temperature because I knew I would need to re-fill it soon.  I think we all know that cold insulin does not feel good at all.  I can remember the first time I took cold insulin, it was through an insulin pen, it burned like crazy.  I felt like somebody took a lighter and just put it up to my skin.  Never did that ever again. Now, into the problem that I have with my insulin company.

I have never seen a company so…ridiculous…for a lack of words.  It is the mail order company that my insurance requires me to use for my mail order services.  Last Friday I filled out the order form and faxed it in and faxed in the prescription that my doctor had just written out for me.  Not good enough for them because the prescription has to come directly from the doctor.  So, I called the doctor’s office and they then faxed it over to them.  Nope, still not good enough.  I have to fill out the order form myself, with my insurance information, billing, shipping, all the good stuff.  Then I have to fax that form to my doctor, who then has to fill out the prescription on that piece of paper, so it can’t be a separate prescription, it has to be hand-written onto that sheet.  Then finally my doctor’s office can fax it over.  So this took up until Monday to finally complete.  Then once they receive it, it takes 24-48 hours to enter the order into the system (I don’t know how it can take that long).  Once the order is in the system it takes 3-5 business to process the order (once again, no idea how it takes that long), but oh don’t worry they ship it overnight for free.  Well you freakin should for taking a damn week to process it!

Well, as you see here, my insulin is in my possession, finally, and I am very happy to see it here.  Time to now put it into the fridge and let it stay there until I need it.  Luckily I won’t have to go through this in December when I re-order because the prescription will be on file.

Well, it’s 8:00 p.m. Friday night, I need to go.  Good news today, my LLC finally went through, official company name is “CSI Marketing Solutions, LLC”

Endo Appointment Tomorrow, Charlie Kimball Friday

Chris Stocker

I received a phone call today from my endo’s office to confirm my appointment for Friday and I was confused.  I said, there’s no way that I could have scheduled an appointment for that day because Friday is Charlie Kimball’s race down in Homestead – Miami that I am going to so I can’t have that appointment.  She said, well I don’t think that we have any other openings.  I said, you don’t understand, I can’t miss this race, I am going to meet Charlie and be at the race.  So she said she would look and see where she could fit me in and give me a call back.  5 minutes later I get a phone call and somebody had cancelled for tomorrow, so it looks like now I have an appointment for tomorrow.

First thing that I am going to explain to the doc when I get in there is come straight out and admit that it hasn’t been a good month for me.  In fact, a pretty effin’ bad month.  I had a lot of highs, some major lows and just been all over the map with my sugars.  However, I did manage to find more time for exercise and lost some weight.  I put a little on over the last week, but I had lost enough before that to still be down some weight since the last visit.  The last thing is to explain that I haven’t worn the sensor at all for multiple reasons.  For one, it started to fall out all the time.  Secondly, the ones that I had expired way back in May and never realized it because I just kept thinking, well I still have 2 full boxes.  I will probably still attempt to use them though.

I must also remember to get new prescriptions from her however because I am almost out of insulin.  That also reminds me that I better re-order very soon because there is always an issue, especially when I need a new prescription sent in.  The first time that I had to send in a new prescription, it took me almost 2 weeks to get my insulin delivered, not good customer service in my eyes.

Today’s post a little short because I just got back from the gym and I am tired and I am trying to cook dinner and do laundry and have a lot of work to catch up on tonight.  So you all have a great day and I will have a better post tomorrow.  Hopefully something positive from the endo appointment.

Top 5 Diabetes Things to Remember When Attending Conferences

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

I do attend a lot of conferences and do a lot of traveling so I was thinking about the checklist that I go through and how it has helped me with all of my traveling that I do.  Here is my top 5 things to do to prepare for a conference, Diabetes style.

1. Make a List

The first thing is to just grab a pen and paper and just start writing down every single thing that comes to your mind that you may need in the next few days or weeks.  Just look around the room and write it down.  Picture Steve Carrell’s character in “Anchorman” when he starts naming everything in the room that he loves.  “I love lamp”.  Everything that you see, write it down.  It’s a brainstorming session.  You can then go back later and make a decision on what things you actually need and which you won’t need at all.  Don’t organize, don’t worry about duplicates.  Obviously, you need your socks and undies, but I always start my list by sitting in front of my “diabetes cabinet” and just tart writing everything down.

2. Scrub the List

The next step is to scrub the list and go through the things that you actually need and get rid of the things that you don’t need.  Once again, I start with the diabetes stuff, “all I need is my pump and my wallet”.  That is my motto when I travel.  If you are only traveling for one day, you probably don’t 5 pairs of pants and shorts.  But you will require 4-5 infusion sets, reservoirs and about 2 vials of insulin.  Pack wisely because of the high costs of traveling with luggage now, so don’t put too much stuff in the suitcase.

3. Carry On Your Supplies

I take my laptop bag with me along with a second drawstring bag.  It makes it easier when Amanda is with me because, she can carry the second bag in her big ole’ carry-on bag.  However, most of the time I fly alone.  I make sure that I have enough supplies to last me double the time of the trip, so the quantity of supplies will vary.  So the bag consists of infusion sets, reservoirs, inserters, IV prep, insulin, 2 meters, strips, lancets, IV dressings and any other little things I may use to manage my diabetes.  I usually get my bag pulled off to the side for a quick search about 75% of the time, I am used to it by now.  It is well worth the additional 5 minutes instead of it being in my checked luggage and having it lost in transit and being without supplies for a week.

4. Prepare for Emergencies Before You Get There

Contact the hotel, conference center and company putting on the conference before hand to find out information on what kind of food or juices that they may be having.  I always contact the hotel before hand and let them know that I need a fridge in my room so I can put my orange juice in there.  Also, ask if the hotel has a deli or snack area to go pick up some juice if you run out.testing at Renaissance Orlando

Next, speak with the actual conference center where the event will be.  Find out where any snack bars or vending machines are in case you need to get up for some juice.  If you are the type of person that is afraid to tell people about your diabetes, then this isn’t for you.  Simply tell them beforehand that you are diabetic and explain what you may need and they should be able to make accommodations or tell you where these things are.  Finally, most conferences have already planned out what they are planning serving for lunch or dinner so send a quick e-mail to the staff putting the event on and they may be able to give you some sort of idea of what is going to be served. This is great to know, so you know if you need to fill up another reservoir before you go into the session or bring an extra insulin pen with you.  It also helps with knowing approximately how many carbs are in what you.  (Unless you have an IPhone, there is an app for that.  Rumor has it, there’s an app that runs your whole life).

5. Test, Test, Test, Test

Just like anything else that you are doing in life, it is absolutely important for you to test your sugar constantly.  I tend to test myself in between sessions so that way I can prepare for a low at that time.  I hate to miss information at a conference, because I paid for the damn thing I want to be there the whole time.  If I have a low in the middle then there goes some information that I am going to miss.  Also, don’t be scared to pull out your meter in front of people.  It actually is a good networking tool.  It sparks conversations for me and then that is just another person that I was able to meet at the conference.  In a way, it is an ice-breaker for me.

I hope this was helpful for all of you.  I am sure that you all have your own method of planning for attending a conference, so I would like to hear some of your other ideas and planning methods.

Have a great day ya’ll.