Saturday, August 22, 2009

If it's not one thing...

Okay, I know I've done my fair share of whining lately, but the funny thing is, it doesn't really describe my head space right now. Things are actually going pretty good with Elise, diabetes-wise.

That being said, some annoying little things keep popping up that are making me want to rip my hair out.

The latest one has to do with Elise's diluted insulin. From the beginning, the endo let us do all the diluting ourselves. They gave us the supplies (syringes, sterile vials and diluent), the "recipe", and told us to have at it. Which we did for the first few months. Then, thanks to some bureaucratic decision (which our endo was none to pleased with, although she couldn't say it in so many words), they were not allowed to give us the diluting supplies anymore.

The only option they could give me was to drive out to the pharmacy at the hospital (30 minutes each way with no traffic) every three weeks and pick it up myself. Um, no thank you. So I did some research and found out Eli Lilly will drop ship the sterile vials and diluent to a pharmacy of my choosing. Yay, problem solved.

The first time I did it, I worked wonderfully. Until we ran out of the diluent and never realized we had used the last vial. Of course, we only figured it out when it was time to make more diluted humalog! And an even further of course, it was the weekend.

So we called Eli Lilly on Monday and asked the to drop ship the diluent only. The first time I had them ship it to the Costco pharmacy, because I really like the staff there, but their hours are not as convenient, and they don't have drive-thru pick-up (sometimes it's mandatory with a toddler in tow). So I chose the CVS up the road from us.

I called on Tuesday and found my shipment was in, so I went and picked it up only to find Eli Lilly had shipped us 20 sterile vials instead of the diluent. ARGGGH! And it was too late in the day to call them to re-order.

So we call Wednesday, and re-order. Both times we've ordered, the shipment has always come in the next day. Thursday, no shipment. Friday, no shipment. And by the time I called CVS to find out that they didn't have it yet, Eli Lilly was closed (they close at 5:00 pm EST) for the weekend!

Our diluted humalog is now expired by a week, although if you read my last post, that's not affecting it's potency in the slightest! And we have to wait until Monday to call Eli Lilly again to figure out what is up. Although, I'm not 100% convinced the problem isn't with the CVS. The people that work in the pharmacy at our CVS aren't the sharpest tools. Needless to say, I don't get many prescriptions filled there!

I've decided the way I'm going to avoid the problem of running out of supplies without realizing it, is by writing on one box of each prescription (test strips, insulin, lancets, syringes, diluent, etc), "LAST ONE", and not use that box until I really and truly can't find anymore. Hopefully this will work until I figure out a better system.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry the "little things" have to be pains in the butt, too. Nothing can ever be simple with JD, huh!?!
    :(
    Your "last one" is a good idea. I know you have so much to keep track of--

    Did you ever figure out what to do regarding new Church service time and being able to go or not?

    MJ

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  2. J's short acting insulin was diluted by a pharmisist when he was a baby. They wouldn't let us do it. There was one time my husband picked up the vile and when he got home we realized the bottle was never opened and it wasn't diluted, they had given us the full strength. We called horrified and they never even apologized. We found a new pharmacy the next day. After that I always worried if they diluted it correctly. You're right, it's always something. But, you have the assurance that it your doing it correctly and that is a blessing.

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