Living with Diabetes and Lapband

First, they are quite confusing since i get a text message every time the finish filling a script.  For some dumb reason, they did my pen insulin (emergency supply) before they did my vial insulin.

I tried to tell them they were wrong, but they basically gave me a two year supply of emergency pens, when they should have given 3 months.  For $30.00

I told them when I picked it up, but they didn’t listen, but it might have been too late at that point.  They called and I explained that it was my emergency insulin and that I used vials.

So I did end up with the correct vials.

They can’t release the pill medication until March 2, when I am completely out.

I will admit that the last few weeks have been stressful.

When they call something dental surgery, they aren’t kidding.  I was a bit surprised that I could drive myself there and back and that they weren’t using more sedation than local anesthesia and calling it surgery.  I’m also not doing anything like that willingly again soon.

Then there is the whole cornea abrasion thing from the dry eye.  I’ve had another small attack upon waking.  Yes, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to see out of that eye again.

Then finances.  I was making somewhere higher than $60,000 a year teaching.  Between retirement and the part time gig, I’m pulling in $40,000.  All good, but we’re still in a bad place tax wise, and I didn’t realize it.  I made a $6000 mistake on our taxes, which means our take home is $6000 a year less than I thought.  I’ve found the money but still.  I also paid off my truck leaving us with no cushion but then no $400 a month truck payment.

I’ve started some other part time work and of course, that adds to the stress.  I like it, as I can schedule it when I want and do when I want.  I might even be able to do it while traveling but we’ll have to see.  I am doing well at it, the first two times I had to add to my reports, but the last 2 times they were accepted as is.

It fits in well with the Johns Hopkins work, since it is also a “do when you want and where”, to some extend.  I get up every morning and go through email, sending out reports and grading work that came into the night.  I tend to drop everything and respond during the day if I get a question, but put off grading most of the time until I have a chunk or its the end of the day.  Of course, since I’m a private contractor, it’s going to be a fun tax thing. 

So I didn’t need the prescription stress.  Though I will admit the savings is going to go a long ways towards the tax discrepancy.

This whole prescription thing has been a bit of a nightmare.  I said yesterday, I had originally planned to just move everything that wasn’t a pill to the Express Scripts Prescription Plus Pharmacy.  Then leave the pills to PillPack, but that hasn’t worked out.  I have succumbed to the  Express Scripts pressure to move everything to Home Delivery.  Well almost the Prescription Plus thing is a compromise.  Though it does still save I’ll save $3158.92 if I switch to home delivery.  At the moment, the Express Scripts is a bit behind.

I have been hesitant to use the Express Scripts Prescription Plus.  I am also REALLY against Home Delivery, especially insulin.

I’ll admit, that of our local pharmacies it is the farthest away – though I do shop at that store and it was on the way home from school.  It’s also the hardest to physically get to from the store parking lot.  The biggest problem was customers, not the staff.  The pharmacy always seem to be busy, probably because of the Prescription Plus thing.  I’m very sure where the line begins, there is no place to sit and wait, and I just feel confused there.  Since it should just be a once a month trip, I should be okay.

Seriously, only once in the past two weeks have I gone in without a line and that was the day they couldn’t help me.

The original plan, which I started, was to get my Contour Next Strips as a 90 day prescription – they had been a 90 day prescription coming from Medtronic's, and Express Scripts nixed that this month.  I walked in and asked if they could do the transfer as a 90 day, and they said no, I had to have a new prescription from my doctor.  I left upset, because I had just been to that doctor and thought the prescriptions were fine, and was not ready for that battle.  I then decided my next 90 days prescription would be my restless leg medication since I see that doctor on March 10. 

As I said yesterday, my current doctors and previous doctors want you to come in for an office visit for any prescription changes.  I just wasn’t ready to deal with Diabetes of America.  Here I was a new patient and needing prescription refills when I said I didn’t.

Late last night I got a call from Tom Thumb and they said it would be a few days before my prescriptions would be ready as they didn’t have enough of the drug to fill it.  Oh, and we just noticed that you still have a couple of 30 day prescription that need to be converted to 90 day.  Well, they didn’t get that there were multiple doctors involved.  So we got that straightened out on the phone.  They are contacting the doctors about the 90 day prescriptions.  One of them was one that Diabetes of America missed, which I swear we talked about on the phone yesterday but there was a bunch.  One was for my primary care physician, which seems to be of the “come in for the prescription school”, so we’ll see.  I had contacted him myself yesterday via the medical portal.

This morning I registered on their website for their online refill system.  It needs a lot of work, but it does work.  I’m getting email reminders to pick things up now. 

By the way, I get the whole, come in and talk to us about prescription changes.  That is the only way the doctor actually gets paid for that kind of work. 

I have been hovering around this decade for a few weeks.  I saw it after my jaw surgery but as I predicted it went back up after a full recovery.

That was three weeks, a cornea abrasion and a whole lot of stress ago, but I can report I've seen it two days in a row.

It does bother me some, and am working on it.

I was initially going to move all of my non-packet medications to 90 day, but not Home Delivery.  Express Scripts has an option where we can pick up 90 day prescriptions from a Prescription Plus pharmacy so it doesn’t have to be shipped.

I went in to do the test strips first, last week and I got frustrated because they couldn’t transfer the 30 day script to a 90 and that I would have to get a new prescription from my doctor.

It was a few days later when I got distracted the Celebrex debacle.

As I mentioned a bit earlier, I talked with Diabetes America (it was around 3:00 pm), and I just got a call from Tom Thumb saying that they had my 90 day script on some of my medications but didn’t have enough medication in stock to fill it.

NO ISSUE!  I don’t need things until next Friday, so I’m even going to wait on the Celebrex until then.  i just contacted my primary care physician and asked for that to be switched too.

The last prescription is for restless leg, I have plenty and I see that doctor in a couple of weeks.

In the past, if I want a prescription change, review of preauthorization I've had to make a doctor's visit to get it done.  I did that on Tuesday for my primary care physician.  I'm good with that.

Yesterday I want to the patient portal to ask for an Invokanna preauthorization since their phone system suggested that.

I got a phone call today which I couldn't take.  I did get assistance after 10 minutes on hold.  They told me that they did get the PA processed and it could take up to a week.   I asked, "do I need to make an appointment,  I would like to get all my 30 day prescriptions changed to 90 days."  Nope, they did it all over the phone!

<happy dance>

So I got my last Pill Pack bill for $344.92.  Typical bills before then, ranged from $120-$160 a month, depending on what all I needed in mail order (insulin, needles, etc).

Not a good impression.

And please don't bother to contact me via phone, and only email me if you are telling me that bill is a mistake.

The called me within 30 minutes of my first post complaining yesterday.

It seems the reason I didn’t get notified about the Innokana prescription is that they were billing it to Innokana and Express wasn’t involved.

<shrug>

I’m still leaving PillPack.  Their phone hold times this week have been over 10 minutes.

I’m transitioning to use an Express Scripts Pharmacy Plus and 90 day prescriptions, primarily to save money.  Express Scripts it’s over $1000 of savings.  We’ll see.

And what prompted this post?  I got a phone call about an hour after I made the previous Pill Pack post – which means someone might be listening.

PillPack contacted me last week to tell me that my generic Celebrex prescription need a preauthorization before the next shipment, a week away.

Went to the doctors office yesterday to straighten out that and another prescription problem and did find out that the majority of the issue was on there in but....

In dealing with this found out that Innokana had the same issue AND THEY DIDN'T tell me.

So, after dealing with this for a week and seeing how much I am paying for their service, I am gone. 

So far the prescriptions were not transferred yet to a local pharmacy because I took them a script for yesterday and the pharmacy didn't get the request yet.  

Next task is to find all my copay offers.  Fun.

I'm good!  Out of the contact lens bandage which I think was irritating me.  She did say it had debris on it.

Artificial tears over 4 times a day and ointment at night.  She sees me in 3 weeks, and then I see the regular eye doctor 3 weeks after.  I don't want to get a prescription and then have to go back and get another a few weeks later.

Thank you for prayers and concern.  I was a bit scared.