urgh

I try not to rant-post so that could be why you haven't heard a lot from me lately. As much as I like to whine, I have to remind myself that no one likes to hear it and to keep it in my head.

You know how when one small thing goes wrong, it seems to just be the last straw and suddenly a bunch of other little wrong things seem so HUGE and it just all adds up and you're tired and cranky and don't want to deal with any of it but you want to vent because you want someone--ANYONE--to understand and help but no one really can help because it's completely out of anyone's control?

So there's that.

AND THEN people just HAVE to keep asking you the dumbest stuff when the answers are quite obvious and you've already told them several times and when they don't get the answer they want, they call someone else and try to go around you and they get the answer they want but there is absolutely no path from here to there and they can't understand that even though you've told them THREE times and the stupidity keeps piling up and piling up and you're really REALLY tempted to just tell them to go away but you know the second you do you'll be the one in trouble for it.

So there's that too.



 

first week

So it's technically been a full week since I got my Dexcom---yaaaaaaay!

I got my first alert to "Change sensor soon" today at lunchtime. Or whatever it said.

The only thing that I wish was different about the entire set up was that I wish there was an option in the "Events" list for a pump site change. While I'm guessing I can make a note of that once I download the information, I'm also guessing that I'll forget what day I changed out my pod. It's just easier to be able to click the button and add it in right away like I do for blood sugar readings, carbs eaten, and insulin.

And it would also mitigate the guilt that I know I'll feel when I'm sitting in my doc's office and she's reviewing the information and looking for patterns and, lo and behold, there's a steady 12 hours of high blood sugar right before a pod change.

I'm not sure how to fix that yet.

I feel like I've already been taking more insulin than normal, just in an attempt to nudge those higher numbers back down. But I don't WANT to take more insulin!! But I don't want my blood sugar to be high. And especially days like today when it feels like nothing is working even AFTER I've changed my pod out.

We are regularly awakened at unholy a.m. by the BZZZZT BZZZZT of this little gizmo on my nightstand. "HIGH" it tells me, pointing at that 200 number. That's nice, I think, and fall back asleep.

I'm giving myself a couple weeks of adjustment here. Can you tell? (Come on! We don't have kids! We should be able to sleep through the night!)

(Except we have fur babies, so that doesn't even really happen.)

Ignorance sometimes really is bliss. (Can't you just look at some people and tell that's their life motto?)

Even though I'm glad to have the data, today I generally feel like throwing this thing at something. Except I wouldn't. Ok, maybe something soft. But I'm really not mad at it, so it wouldn't be fair. So no throwing things today.

Onward.

approval

I can't remember if I said this before, but high praise and kudos to my cousin Lauren who reads my blog {hiiiiiii!!) and asked if she could put me in touch with her friend Brittany because she thought I could use some advice regarding my struggle with my insurance to approve me for a Dexcom system.

Super high praise, thanks, and I'll-totally-be-your-2,500-mile-away-BFF-in-Georgia to Brittany for suggesting I get a case manager and have them help me with the appeals process.

I finally talked to a case manager a couple weeks ago. She was SO nice. I don't know why I didn't call sooner.

Oh, yeah, because I pretty much hate talking on the phone. I do it all. day. long. It's so awkward.

Or maybe that's me. But whatever.

The POINT is, I did it and I'm glad I did. After talking to my case manager, I contacted my doctor's office and asked them to send the info she requested--it wasn't even much, just something saying that I had diabetes, that I was responsible about it, and that I was over 25 years old (what that has to do with it, I dunno).

Last Friday, my case manager called me and said she was really hoping there would have been a decision made that day, but she hadn't seen anything uploaded into her system yet and that she would call me on Monday when she heard. Throughout the whole process she was very positive about this working out for me. The only hang-up (??) was my "good" A1c of 6.6 --anything under 7.0 is apparently considered good. But she was pretty sure she could talk them around that point since it had crept up from 6.2.

Monday I was on pins and needles all day. ALL. DAY!!!!

I went ahead and emailed my contact at Dexcom to kind of get the ball rolling on that end. 

She finally called around 4 and gave me the good news. I AM APPROVED!!!

I again emailed my contact at Dexcom, told him the good news, gave him her name and number and he said, "What color do you want and where do you want it shipped?" Of course I'm getting the pink one.

A couple more back-and-forths with some paperwork and, of course, payment and I should be all set.

YAY!!!