Happy Halloween!

We had a bit of a delay to our pumpkin carving this evening as I had to clean up a little accident Sarah left in the dining room. There are some decorations on the porch, though, and candy has been purchased. Rich went for the Imperial theme this year and I put the BlogHer symbol on mine. None of our neighbors will understand them, so we're counting on you, Internet, to get joy out of them. We have a third pumpkin in reserve, so maybe that one can get some triangle eyes and a toothy grin tomorrow.

Diabetes - you're doing it wrong

This is my 90 day supply of insulin. It costs $547.63. My Minimed pump that delivers insulin over the course of the day costs about $5000 and should be replaced each time its five year warranty expires. The infusion sets and tubing that compliment the pump cost about $250 every 90 days. My blood glucose meter is pretty cheap but the test strips for it cost $187 for 200 which barely lasts me 30 days. I don't bother trying to get reimbursed for the alcohol swabs, lancets, AAA batteries, or other incidentals related to my disease, but on a monthly basis it costs over $450 a month just for the bare necessities to manage my health. That doesn't include copays for my quarterly endocrinologist appointments and blood work.

I cannot imagine what my life would be like if I didn't have good health insurance. It's not a luxury for me, it's a car payment's worth of cost to me every month (that thankfully gets reimbursed by my insurance but requires the cash flow to afford in the first place).

If I were to get pregnant, I would need to test my blood sugars twice as often as I do now which would double the cost of test strips. I would also need significantly more insulin throughout the pregnancy so that in the third trimester I could be using three times as much insulin as I do now. And I would be considered a "high risk pregnancy" so I would need to go to specialists and need additional tests.

I would really like to have a continuous glucose monitor to help catch high blood sugars sooner, but insurance won't cover any of those costs without a lot of persistence and only occasional success. I'm going to start that battle next week after I talk to my endocrinologist. The sensors for the Dexcom monitor are $60 each and last approximately 7 days (your mileage may vary). That's another $240 a month in maintenance costs.

As I get older, the chances for complications to my health go up but I haven't really seen a lot of revolutionary progress in ways to manage - let alone cure diabetes since I was diagnosed in 1985. The Associated Press released an article today that diabetes drug costs have doubled over the last six years, reaching over $12.5 billion last year. Sure, they're talking about the 90% that have Type 2 diabetes versus the 10% like me, but I'm sure we're a factor in there.

After a day like today when my blood sugar has been inexplicably skyrocketing, the last thing I need to worry about is if I can afford to check my blood very often or if my insulin has arrived yet so I'm not squeezing the last bits out of the only vial I have left. I get it. Life isn't fair. There are lots of Americans with expensive medical bills. But sometimes it just wears me down. Perhaps Sarah Palin can counsel me about what I should do if I can't afford medicine one day.

My Dad can beat up your teenage son

At 11:30 last night I got an email from my mother with the subject of "Robbery" and the only line in it saying "are you up?". I called and Mom said that someone tried to rob my father in their front yard but that he overpowered the kid and took his gun from him. Apparently the only injury he sustained was a dislocated shoulder. It's just another example of how my father continually amazes me. He had gone out to make sure the cars were locked, armed only with his trusty flashlight (it's really more of a spotlight). When he was out at the street he noticed three teenagers walking down the middle of the road. Once he had made it back to the middle of the front yard, he heard the "whump whump whump" of someone trying to stop after a sprint. He turned and there was a kid, maybe 15, hopping around and waving his extended arm in his face.

My father's first reaction was confusion at what his problem was. Then he saw there was a handgun at the end of that extended arm and confusion turned to rage. My father made a noise like a grizzly bear, shined his trusty spotlight right in the kid's face and lunged for him. In the scuffle the light hit the ground just before Daddy and the kid hit the ground. He managed to get both of his hands on the gun so the kid let go. At that point, he had the kid pinned behind him on the ground and had turned the gun over his own right shoulder, trying to fire it at the kid with his thumb. That's when he realized the chamber was empty and wouldn't fire. That's also when the kid realized he was in way over his head and took off in a sprint.

My mother had heard the commotion and came out just as they had hit the ground but all she could do was scream angrily from the front porch. After the kid took off, my parents just stood in the middle of the street and called 911. Then Mom came inside to email me.

When I first heard all of this, I was furious. I wanted to take a baseball bat to the punk who tried to ruin it for everyone in MY neighborhood. That worthless criminal was in the front yard of my childhood home. I had been out walking my dog not an hour before this thug had accosted my father. What if it had been my mother out there? Who does this kid think he is?

After talking to my father more, I was actually more angry at their next door neighbor. He was in his conversion van in the driveway next to this scuffle and DIDN'T DO A GODDAMN THING. He can't call 911? He can't peek out the window to see if maybe my father is making a noise from the Edge because he's wrestling with some kid one fourth his age 30 FEET AWAY. Fuck him.

So to recap, I'll be taking a 9 iron with me on my evening walks, my parents are getting a new light in the front yard, their neighbor is a coward and my father is a one man Neighborhod Watch Machine. As Rich noted, the kid tried to rob an old man and that old man kicked his ass and took his gun from him in front of his friends. Short of peeing on him I'm not sure my father could have shamed the little shithead any more.