How Dare You Make a Profit Off My Incurable Illness

To make my life a little easier, I signed up with one of those mail order diabetic supply companies, the ones who ship your test strips right to your door at no additional cost to you. However, my life is not much easier.

To begin with, there are companies that cheat people, like Liberty Medical. (I was warned by several nurses not to use them.) They get your name, the name of your insurance, and then you don't get what you are promised while you insurance gets a huge bill. To combat this fraud, doctors must approve a supplier before your test strips are charged to your insurance. The insurance company must also approve said supplier.

My doctor wouldn't approve anything until she actually spoke to me in person at her office. She told me hundreds of 'suppliers' mail/fax requests and she has no idea which company I actually signed up with. And this is the SECOND supplier I tried, the first one never even responded to me.

So after a month of trying to get supplies, then waiting for the ok from both doc and blue cross, I had to wait several more weeks before I got a shipment. Two boxes arrived, both with my name and address. In each box was a packing slip. Only one slip had my name, the other was for someone in Texas which I take to mean the supplier is not well organized. Also there was more things in the box than listed on the packing slips.

I had two different kinds of strips, both the same brand, but one didn't work in my meter. I've already posted about how the postal services is staffed by idiots. I STILL haven't gotten the correct strips.

Thinking that maybe the diabetic supply company wants to keep costs down by not shipping unnecessary boxes, I figured there would be extra strips in my next shipment, due to arrive the second week of October. I STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN A SHIPMENT!

It's a damn good thing I purchased more test strips from CVS because if I were poor and had to wait on a box, I'd probably be dead or comatose again.

I'm calling again tomorrow. So for I've either gotten a person who assures me all is well (but can't answer my questions) or I don't get an answer at all.

Isn't being a diabetic hard enough as it is? Aren't I already struggling with my sugar? Am I not under enough stress wondering if this disease is killing me slowly? Every time I feel a little tingle in my toe I become paranoid about losing feeling in my feet. If I eat out and the diet coke doesn't taste exactly right I freak out thinking some lazy server has given me regular coke and my sugar is about to skyrocket.

What is wrong with these people? Why are they not falling all over themselves to help me? Surely there is at least one person employed by that supplier who knows a diabetic and understands the daily struggle, paranoia, and fear. Surely that is why the business start in the first place? What kind of person decides they can cheat people by denying them the tools to manage an illness? And for all the people who think such a thing is alright, I hope they burn on the very bottom layer of hell for all of miserable eternity.