Hodgepodge post

I keep thinking about the methotrexate shortage and drug shortages in general and cost control of drugs. And how Iran has the cheapest insulin. And about scandals regarding drug manufacture. I think the US government should get in the drug manufacturing business in order to cut prices, improve purity, and create access for Americans. Or if not the US govt, then a nonprofit.

When I didn't have a CGM, and I decreased my Lantus dose and had more overnight drop, I assumed that on the first night I'd had lows. Well, I didn't have lows the last few nights on 7 units of Lantus, although I didn't trust the down trend. So I dropped the dose to 6 units last nght and thought I'd be stable or rise overnight. Nah... dropped and woke up hypo, with an overnight drop of roughly 70 mg/dl. 6 is a pretty low Lantus dose for me- before last night, the previous time I'd taken 6 units was the night of Yom Kippur, and the time before that was on my retreat in August- I tend to run low when traveling.

The first ten copies of the zine were all distributed with five requests pending, so I made another ten copies. I made a different cover because I didn't do the margins well the first time. Next issue, when I'm writing the pages, I'm going to use a yellow marker to create (small) margins. I went to buy 2 cent stamps so that I wouldn't have to put eight 1 cent stamps on a zine going overseas, and while I was at it I bought a sheet of the Go Green! stamps 'cause I like them. But then I gave them to my mother as a gift.

I made some scatter plots by hand on paper, comparing my daily standard deviation and averages, and time spent in the 75-165 range and daily average. The latter graph had a much more visually apparent trend; I sometimes have low standard deviations with high averages. But lower days are more likely to have been controlled, and also a large standard deviation is less likely when going down from the average much makes me hypo.

Dexcom is giving an extra free sensor to anybody who places their first online order in the next month or so. I gave it a try, and so far it is frustrating me. It took about a day to link my account to the information I provided online, and then after I put in a request for sensors, I got a statement that it'd get back to me regarding coverage and now it says something like cost $920 (two boxes), and that my part of that $920 would be $233. $233 sounds high to me, although I guess I'd pay it. But I'd really like to know where that comes from, since the online statement doesn't say anything about what my insurance is paying or anything like that. Do I have a deductible and then I pay 10%, like last year? Or am I going to be asked for $233 for each shipment this year?