Apidra and Medicare: Good News!

Last week after a reader contacted me that Apidra was not coming up on the Medicare search tool, I contacted Sanofi-Aventis. I came home Friday to find an email with some good news. Apparently, Medicare made a mistake in not including Apidra in the search tool. Most Medicare plans will still cover Apidra. Unfortunately, because the search tool will not help you, you have to go to each available plan’s website (or call them) to find out whether or not they will cover Apidra. The person at Sanofi also told me that if it is not coming up on the plan’s list, to call them to make sure because they might not have the latest available updates on the website.

My pharmacy was closed when we got back from Pittsburgh Friday evening, so I gave my two prescriptions to my mother to pick up. Saturday morning, I logged into my plan’s website to see if the Dakin’s solution would be covered – the wound center told me that it might not be covered. I noticed that they had the 2013 formulary up so I looked to see if Apidra was on there and it wasn’t. I then looked at one of the other plans in my area and they did have it.

Gastroparesis: Early Signs

I will often see a discussion with someone having problems with their blood sugar and another person will suggest gastroparesis.  The person having problems will say they don’t have gastroparesis because they are not sick in their stomach.  I remember one conversation in particular on TuDiabetes that my friend Natalie suggested gastroparesis based on what the person’s blood sugar was doing.  Of course, the person did not think they had gastroparesis.

I was officially diagnosed with gastroparesis in September, 2003.  I got really sick in my stomach over Easter weekend that year.  When I started doing research on it, it really sounded like gastroparesis. When I went in to see my PCP, his response was that I didn’t look that sick and if I still didn’t feel great in two weeks, I should come back and he would put me in the hospital to get fluids in me.  If that didn’t work, they would call in a gastroenterologist.  Needless to say, that was the last time I saw that doctor!  Fortunately my insurance did not require a referral to a specialist and I made my own appointment with a gastroenterologist.

I had a long wait to get in with a gastroenterologist, but in the meantime, I gathered up all the stomach tests I had done over the years.  I actually had two different tests suggesting gastroparesis.  The first of those tests was an Upper GI done in July, 1995 – eight years before I had any real signs of gastroparesis!

Gastroparesis and Apidra

I first started using Apidra in the spring of 2008. I saw people talking about it on a message board and wanted to try it. I had some concerns that it would be too fast for me with gastroparesis and my PCP had those same concerns. He didn’t have any patients using it, but one of the nurses in his practice was diabetic and used it. He said that she really liked it. Fortunately for me, even though he had concerns, he was willing to let me try it. He gave me one of the “OptiStick” pens but did not give me a script to get refills. When I asked to try Levemir, he had given me the pen plus a script to get more. I am guessing he didn’t think the Apidra would work!

I love Apidra – I believe that it is currently the best insulin on the market to manage gastroparesis with.

As far as Apidra being super fast, that is not my experience with it. This chart on WebMD comparing insulin has the onset for Apidra at 20-30 minutes. It has the onset for Humalog at 15-30 minutes and Novolog at 10-20 minutes. According to that chart, Apidra is actually the slowest of the three fast acting insulins. For me, it takes about 20 minutes to kick in. In talking to other people, 20 minutes seems to be a common kick-in time.

I Write About My Health Because …

The prompt for Day 4 of the Wego Health Writer’s Challenge is “I write about my health because…”

Prior to when I started my blog two years ago, a friend of mine had been encouraging me to write about what I went thru with my foot, but I wasn’t interested in writing.  After I found the DOC (which is the diabetes online community for you non-D people), I found help in managing my blood sugar with gastroparesis.  Prior to my finding the DOC, I never received help from doctors.  I was very frustrated and felt hopeless.  With help from my friends in the DOC, I was able to turn things around.

When I went online and started talking to other people, I realized that I was not alone.  There were a lot of people out there just like me that felt alone also.  It felt good to talk to people and share ideas.  I am a left handed person that grew up in a right handed world and I know just because something works for one person doesn’t mean it will work the same way for you.  The more ideas that someone can get, the better chance they have of finding one that will work for them.  I wanted to be able to share the things I have learned with other people.