Archive for December, 2010

You have to put the needle where?

Monday, 13 December, 2010 20:44 Written by The Frizbian

Google Alerts are cool. I now get the latest diabetes news sent right to my phone. The majority of it is related to Type II diabetes so I don’t really pay attention. But every once in a while I get something real interesting. It is the difference between “That’s interesting,” and “I GOT TO GET ONE OF THOSE!”

Today, my “I GOT TO GET ONE OF THOSE” comes from a Fox News article called, “Stem Cells From Testes May Cure Diabetic Men“. The article basically just explains how scientists have managed to lower the blood sugar of diabetic mice, and how they have managed to do it more than once. The real question is still unanswered. Will my stupid immune system kill the new cells. The real question is how big is the needle they use to get the cells out of your Forget it. I don’t care. I can recover from a kick between the legs. Diabetes is forever and ever and ever and ever. I’ll walk it off, if it means no more worrying about blood sugar, carbohydrates, and needles.

From what I have seen in the last few years about cure theories for Type I diabetes, they have always ended with the same question. Will the immune system just kill the new cells? Sort of wish I was a mouse so I could find out. It took 25 years for my immune system to kill the first set. Maybe I’ll get 25 years with the second set as well. I would settle for 1 year. I could take a kick in the happy place once a year, if it means my pancreas isn’t squatting the rest of the year.

All I Want for Christmas is Dependable, Affordable Health Insurance

Saturday, 11 December, 2010 22:54 Written by The Frizbian

0 Comments

If you don’t already know, I hate the health care system in America. Not that I know that much about it, but I do know that my HSA, my health insurance, and my diabetes do not seem to play well together. I did not have these types of problems in Italy.

My health insurance believes that the year starts in October. Every October I have to begin to pay my health insurance deductible all over again. That means everything comes out of my pocket and having diabetes means there is a great deal coming out of my pocket. Which means every year, we struggle financially until income tax comes in. Which means Santa Clause is on an extemely tight budget. If he even has a budget this year.

Then, the accountant at work let me know after my last paycheck that I could no longer contribute to my HSA this calendar year. I have apparently contributed too much. I didn’t think I would reach the limit. I assumed the inventors of HSA kept people with cronic illnesses in mind when they came up with this great plan. Apparently not. Now, I cannot contribute to my HSA until January. The benefit of the HSA was that the money was all pre-tax. When it is all getting spent on insulin anyway, pre-tax is nice. Now I’m going to have to use taxed money for the next month. I’m not a fan.

The other day, I received a letter in the mail about some changes in my health insurance. Apparently, my health insurance company has decided that they should reduce the number of testing strips that us diabetics are using. They actually sent me a chart telling me how many strips I could use during a given period of time. Of course, they didn’t tell me how long a “given period of time” is.

While the pharmacutical company is making money off our need for insulin and the insurance company is making money off our need for anything medical, I’m struggling to make ends meet. Capitalism is awesome. Especially if you’re the one that is being capitalized on.