Friday, January 30, 2009

This is Ridiculous

I am so mad right now.

So we moved cross-country recently. I've been having trouble with my blood sugars being unpredictable, probably due to a mix of physical and emotional stress that came with this move, as well as hormonal craziness due to birth control pills that I started to try to mitigate some hormonal craziness like throwing up at that time of the month.

Add in some holidays and an ice storm and depression over moving and a two-year-old who takes up almost all of my time and energy, and I don't really have time to deal with this CRAP about changing insurances and finding a new doctor when I'm not sick and blah blah blah.

So I tried to get my prescription for test strips filled. But I couldn't pick them up because first they had to call my doctor to request a refill since They think They have to monitor us to keep us healthy but all that really happens is that sometimes you can't get what you need because They decide you're not playing nice with the system.

By the time the doctor okay'd it, we were in the middle of an ice storm. Luckily, I had plenty of test strips left to last me a couple more days of ice.

Today we finally got to get out and try to get my prescription. It was waiting for me, but of course I had switched insurances so there was that whole rigamarole to go through. (Not that we wanted to switch insurances. We had Aetna, which I'd had before and it worked ok, and Ben's work switched us to BCBS, which we had in NC and was always a problem.)

Then they tell me that I can't get that many test strips per month...unless I do their mail-order form. Um...I'm out of test strips! So the nice pharmacist calls the company and asks for an exception for this month...Nope. They will give me 10 days for $60 and that's it. Um...it only costs me $20 for 30 days, so how the heck does that work out?

And obviously we don't exactly have tons of money to throw at my diabetes, so right now I'm forced to not take any and then go home and yell at the BCBS people...if they don't keep me on hold forever.

So I still don't have my test strips. And if they tell me I was supposed to mail-order, I will yell even louder. This is ridiculous. It's not my fault that I need more test strips than they think is allowable to keep on top of my diabetes. It's not my fault that I don't have a new doctor, either, since I'm not sick but I AM the one who has to live with diabetes, and why the HECK does it make sense for them to control what medications I can't have that have to do with my diabetes, and why do they think it's a good idea to withhold medicines when if I don't get them I can promise you that my blood sugars will not be within range, since I can't tell what the heck they are?

Where do people get the energy to deal with this crap? I'm too tired and depressed from my move to do much besides daily maintenance--feed and take care of myself and my family and try not to have an apoplexy when something in my daily plans goes this awry.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Thanks. I feel marginally better. Now off to wait for a customer service rep. Gag me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so so sorry for this obscenely ridiculous situation. Unfortunately, it is this kind of nightmare for almost anyone who is trying to obtain healthcare. What fries my backside is when someone says, "well, just get a different doctor." grumble, grumble, grumble, and double grumble. like you can get a new and better doctor just by wanting one. It's kind of like when my uncle told me, "Be sure to get a GOOD lawyer!"
your very sympathetic having lived this for many years,
mama

Elin said...

Susan! Come live in Iceland where we have government health care and as far as I know diabetes medication is free! If that is not an option (in the unlikely event...) I have nothing to offer but cyber hugs and I hope things work out!!