New with ?...Dh dx

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-01-2004
New with ?...Dh dx
14
Mon, 10-15-2007 - 3:00pm
Hi Everyone~
My husband was just diagnosed with diabetes. Actually dont even see Dr till 6:15 tonight but got the call with the numbers on Friday. His labs were fasting glucose 231 and his a1c was 8.1. They were slightly elevated at his last physcial 2 years ago and has not gone back till now for more labs. Even then they were diabetic numbers but Dr thought maybe something was off etc. His mother was diabetic too. My question is I called insurance bc I am SURE they are going to want us to monitor at home. They said the strips and monitor etc are only covered if you are insulin dependant. So if we have to buy this stuff ourselves (hoping he wont need to go directly to insulin) What is best without killing us finacially?? Machine wise etc?
Funny thing is I am an RN and there were two things I HATED in nursing school. Diabetes and the heart. So here I am married to a man with hypertension and now diabetes.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.
Jan

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Mon, 10-15-2007 - 3:34pm

First off, I'd double check the insurance - type 2 diabetes monitoring is covered by most insurance now. It saves them money in the long run if you keep your blood sugar tightly controlled and avoid the expensive complications down the road. Also, talk with the dr (is it a gp or endocrinologist?) as far as getting the monitor and all. If a dr gives you an Rx for it as necessary, many insurance companies will at least pick up some of the cost. And, some drs (more endos probably than gps since endos see more diabetic patients) actually keep a stock of monitors on hand and include that in the diagnosis visit cost that they bill insurance for.

As far as which monitor, I like having one that has a drum of test strips rather than handling them individually (I've got an Accu-Check Plus). A quick browse on CVS.com lists a variety of monitors (but not all that are available) ranging from around $50 to around $100 with $70-$80 about average. Not really bad considering it's a durable medical good, something that will be around for a while, not get used up, KWIM? If you spend $70 and use it for 5 years, that's $14 per year which is pennies per day (sounds like a commercial). And, as I noted with the insurance companies, it's worth $70 if it'll keep you from multi-hundred dollar hospital bills down the road. Once you've picked the monitor, the test strips pretty much are decided by that - whether it's individual strips, drums, whatever. Those, however, are not durable so, yeah, you'll be paying for them on a regular basis - how often depends on how often your dr wants him to test his bs. It might be only once a day, might be before every meal, after meals, multiple times per day, etc. Oh, also, while not essential, it's nice to have one that has a pretty large memory to store results so if he's testing someplace where it's not convenient to write things down, he'll still have the result available later.

--Deb

Avatar for cl_coldfingers
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Mon, 10-15-2007 - 4:27pm

Hi and welcome to the board.


iVillage Member
Registered: 06-03-2002
Mon, 10-15-2007 - 5:15pm

you can ask your doc office my doc gave me mine ...

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-01-2004
Mon, 10-15-2007 - 6:15pm
Thanks everyone! I really appriciate your responses. Hes running late on commuting traffic tonight, so we will be late for appt and they will be pissy but oh well, its the only NIGHT they work (and only till 7)
Hopefully I will fell better after teh apppt. My ehad has been in a tailspin all weekend. Food shoppng, label reading and honestly I need someone to explain why he has to stay away form whites.....bread, potatoes etc. The whole wheat and other things dont look much diff to me nutrition wise....... I must be missing something!
Yes, the whole ins thing made no sense to me, he is state employee and has good benefits usually. I know when we had the baby and she needed mega expensive formula every time I called I got a diff answer. It was ultimately covered. Think they could train their employees better.
I will keep you all updated and make you nuts with ?' Im sure :)
Thanks again,

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-10-2003
Mon, 10-15-2007 - 7:45pm

staying away from the "whites" is often an easy way to identify what often are simple carbs. they tend to shoot up the glucose fast and may then nosedive fast too.

Avatar for cl_maryfrances40
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Tue, 10-16-2007 - 12:45am

Jan,


Hi and welcome to the board. I am also an RN. I didn't like skin disease in nursing school! Anything involved with eating was of great interest to me.


What kind of insurance do you have? As Deb told you, most insurances will pay for the strips and meter

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-01-2004
Tue, 10-16-2007 - 8:39am
Good Morning~
Just wanted to pop in and update a bit. We went to our Dr appt last night. The main reason Mark had all that bloodwork to start with was to have his b/p meds changed bc his ankles swell and that can be a side effect of one of them. Anyway......he changed his b/p med , so hoping this one works better. Its a second generation and its only one pill a day versus the 3 he was taking. He did not want to change that AND add diabetes meds so he relented and is allowing Mark till after the holidays to try and get it down with diet. He also ordered a glucometer, to check his blood sugar twice a day and start to see correlations with what he eats etc. He did say ths same thing I did , He really doubts with the numbers he has that if he was an angel and followed everything to a tee and Partnered with Jack Lalaine that it will work. He has diabetes. But he also said three months wont hurt to give it a try. (as long as he eats well, and I monitor his blood sugars) They (Drs) are actually encouraged to try that first. So .......thats that story.
Thanks and I am sure I will be here lurking,reading and with occasional questions. You are all great!!!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Tue, 10-16-2007 - 11:04am

The difference is that white stuff has had the fiber stripped out (white flour, white potato, etc). Which means it's basically the same as eating a spoonful of sugar as far as how it reacts - straight into the bloodstream. It might be helpful to do a little reading on the glycemic index - there's lots of information out there now about this. Basically, it's about how certain things are absorbed and turned into glucose in the body. What you're looking for (in general and *particularly* with diabetes) is a nice gentle swell, like a calm day at the lake. What you don't want is tsunami surges and recessions (spikes and valleys). Simple carbs are peaks and valleys, complex carbs are gentler because they have more fiber which slows digestion which slows absorption into the system. Clear as mud? Also, if you are going to have something carby, some folks find it helpful to combine it with fats/proteins which are also slower to digest.

--Deb

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Wed, 10-17-2007 - 8:51am

Another thought on the insurance situation: get your hands on a copy of the plan book. When your DH got his insurance, he should have received one. If you can't find yours (who really tracks that stuff anyhow?), have him check with the human resources department where he works (if that's where his insurance is from) - they *always* have a current copy on hand. Read through the table of contents looking for topics like Durable Medical Equipment. For example, I just pulled out the most recent copy of my plan book (we just got a revised one so it was on top of the pile in my desk drawer lol). Under Durable Medical Equipment it says:
This certificate covers:

Diabetic drugs, equipment, supplies

Once, you've looked it up *in writing*, then maybe call the company back and see what they say when you come back with "Well, page 34 of the plan document says...."

--Deb

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-28-2005
Wed, 10-17-2007 - 3:39pm

In regard to:


 

Amy

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