Blog 30 Days of Diabetes--Day 2

Election Day – What issues are important to you? If you could tell your representatives one thing about diabetes, what would it be?

There are some things I don't understand, here in Mississippi. We have lived in two other states since my daughter's diagnosis: Montana, and Florida. She has always been on Medicaid.

Medicaid in Montana and Florida always covered everything, all of her medical expenses: all of the medical exams, including blood work; all of her supplies, including insulin, test strips, pen needles, etc. For some reason, here in Mississippi, Medicaid will not cover the pen needles!! Apparently they don't want to cover blood work either!

What kind of regulation is that, to cover the insulin in a pen, but not cover the needle, which one needs to administer the insulin??? And does MS Medicaid cover blood work, or not? Is this just an error on the part of the billing department at the clinic where my daughter had her check up?

And why is it so hard to find an endocrinologist?...In Montana, there wasn't a pediatric endocrinologist in our part of the state (maybe even the whole state, I don't really know). They had one come in from Spokane, Washington, once a quarter!!

I don't know what provisions are made in the public schools in this state, since we homeschool. But I know, from reading the message boards on Children With Diabetes, that most school systems across the country leave a lot to be desired as far as provisions for children with Diabetes.

I also really wish that a person, especially a child, would be eligible for SSI....without having to have lost eyesight, or have had a limb amputated. They shouldn't have to have reached such a desperate situation in order to be eligible. Just my opinion!!

The one thing I would wish for my representative to know/understand about Diabetes, especially Type 1: It is very unpredictable. No two people experience it the same way. Seriously, no one person experiences it the same way from one day to the next!! More research needs to be done, till we can find a cure.

I know there are days when my daughter wishes she could just "quit"....quit having to keep track of blood sugars; quit having to keep track of carbs; quit having to poke herself with needles 4+ times a day; just quit diabetes!! But she can't....this is for the rest of her life. And every day, I just wish I could take it from her.....But I can't, either.

This is our life.... Pin It Now!