Blue!

Blue is the color of World Diabetes Day and generally of diabetes awareness. Guess what else is blue?

The new pump!

When this new year began, I began worrying about the warranty of the old "Tommonater" expiring in May. I worried a lot about the expense of it. We have "good" health insurance, but an insulin pump is still expensive. That worry was compounded by getting the run-around about how much it was going to cost. The pump company said they couldn't tell me because it was prohibited by some undisclosed law protecting the contract between the insurance company and manufacturer (yeah, THAT should be a thing!), and the insurance company said the doctor would have to tell me. The doctor told me to plan on ten grand. (TEN GRAND. Are you kidding me?! That cannot be right.) While I'm running back and forth just trying to get an answer so I can budget and plan for this, I was informed that, even after the warranty expires, Medtronic allows for a 90-day loaner during which a patient can get a replacement and figure out what to do if their pump fails. A little relief, but not enough. Medtronic advised I just wait it out, saying it could last another year or two post-warranty. Knowing our costs would be minimized at the end of our deductible-year, I generally planned to start the order process in November. I figured, worst case scenario was that I'd find out it just wasn't affordable (because they'd have to give me a solid figure if I ordered), we'd just back out. Luckily, I encountered a local Medtronic salesman at the Walk and he assured me it was going to be right around, maybe a bit over, a thousand bucks and they'd definitely work up a payment plan. Not chump change, but do-able. Especially with a payment plan. What I didn't know is they'd give us a $500 credit for returning the old one. WHEW. (With the little left of the deductible, that put our part at just under a grand.) So, a call to the doc's office, a call back from Medtronic after they received the order and prescription, and a week or so later, it's here! Deductible for the year is met with a month to go.

So, this year, we are thankful for a new pump and the ability to afford it. (Ok, so we're really just squeezing it into an already tight budget, but .. we do what we have to do. Right?)