Rats keeping fit -- without diabetes!

From the Islets of Humor website (islets -- like islets of langerhans on the pancreas -- get it?  get it?)

Great Endocrinologist in Seattle/Bellevue

I found a great endocrinologist in the area.  His name is Gary Enzmann and in a two week period he was able to adjust my pump so that I no longer had extreme highs and lows.  Interestingly, he adjusted it so I take LESS insulin.  He said that I was having lows, my liver would kick sugar into my system in a desperate attempt to keep me alive, and then my blood sugars would go to high.  A slight adjustment, and now I am always around 100 plus or minus a bit.  I still have some lows and highs, but I am much, much more stable.

I just received a bill from his office, though, and it looks like my insurance doesn't cover him.  Odd, he was on the list.  I am hoping it's just an interim bill that will show the payment down the line.  If not, I'm going to owe $533.80 for the first visit, and I don't know how much for the second.  And I need to go back in December (plus get a flu shot in the meantime).  I am in the process of trying to get new medical insurance.  I am sure it's going to cost me big bucks, but I've got to do something.  I've had crappy insurance ever since I left Missouri, and even there it was pretty crappy.  It's that stuff that takes over your Medicare coverage.  It is the suckiest insurance in the world.

UPDATE October 15, 2010:  The doctor's office is going to resubmit the bill under a different code.  Hope that works.  Dishonest blankety-blank insurance company!!!!

It's been almost 5 years

It's been almost five years since I posted here.  I started this blog for the Blogathon in 2005.  I was blogging for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  Apparently there was no Blogathon in 2010 -- they took a year off -- but there will be in 2011 and I think I'll do it again.  In the meantime, I'm going to pick up this blog on type 1 diabetes and continue it.  I think it provides some useful information.

The interesting thing is that the last time I posted, I had just gotten my insulin pump.  My endocrinologist here in Seattle/Bellevue (he has two offices) asked me if my pump is out of warranty.  I think the warranty was five years (I'll have to check) so that means I have two and a half months before my pump is five years old and out of warranty.  The question is -- if my pump breaks, how will I get a new one?  This one was $5000, and right now I have crappy insurance.  I don't now how Medicare-based insurance (the ones the health insurance companies take over from Medicare) handle medical equipment like an insulin pump.  I'll have to check.