This has been one rough week and I cannot wait until it is behind me.

• My boss is on vacation so I’ve been filling in for him.  That has lead to some hectic times in the office.  It’s great being in charge sometimes but I am looking forward to having that extra load lifted come Monday!  Also at work, being part of a huge organization can create complicated processes and frustration that are truly unnecessary.
• I was expecting a shipment at home from Modell’s (new sneaks baby) this week.  It was initially shipped via FedEx SmartPost which means that FedEx brings it to the US Post Office who then delivers it.  In tracking this shipment, I saw that it went from my city, to the next one over, then to New Jersey, a whole other state.  I cannot begin to tell you the frustration I had in trying to get to the bottom of where it was going to wind up.  Sitting silent on your end of the phone because you cannot get passed the automated voice prompt in order to speak to a real person.  USPS needs to improve their telephone customer service system!
• Insurance.  I admit I’ve never really had to deal with insurance woes.  My coverage is above average and never resulted in denied claims or anything of that nature.  This year, my employer switched to Anthem BCBS and I hate them.  Every shipment of pods that I get from Edgepark is initially denied, they request medical records (of what kind, I have no idea) and take 2 months or more to finally approve.  My last order from 5/22/13 is still not approved.  This is the third time they’ve done this and Edgepark will rightfully be hesitant to send my next shipment which is scheduled for 8/3.  I’ve attempted to work something out with them so that this does not happen every time to no avail.  This has become so frustrating and now also worrisome that I will not receive my pods in a timely manner.
• My employer offers a health advocate service and I figured my insurance approval for pods issue was the perfect opportunity to engage such a service.  This is what I was told by them today “Unfortunately, the distributor has the right to hold any shipment if payment is not received.  Your only option would be to pay the charges and submit the bill to the insurance carrier for reimbursement as the request for medical records are to determine medical necessity.”  Hello more frustration.
• Insurance.  I admit I’ve never dealt with insurance woes.  My (previous) pump was an Animas Ping that came out of warranty last month.  I received a new one with word from Animas that no preauthorization was required and that it was covered 100% under my durable medical equipment coverage.  Anthem has approved this claim with the amount of the pump not covered.  Animas claims they are working on it and assured me I would not have to pay for the pump.  I informed them more than once I am NOT paying $6,000 for the pump.  So incredibly frustrating.
• My endo appointment was last week and not only did my A1c go up a bit, so did my cholesterol.  This is the first time ever that it’s been slightly elevated so I’m not terribly concerned.  However I am trying to think of what could have possibly caused it and am extremely frustrated that I can’t seem to narrow it down to anything in particular.  If anything, I’ve been exercising more and eating a bit better!
• In the 18 months I’ve been using the OmniPod system, I have had very few issues with pod failures and other problems.  Last week when it was about 100 degrees in NY, I changed a pod to my lower back only to sweat it off in 5-10 minutes flat.  Since I was afraid of sweating more pods off, I was mainly using my abdomen for pod sites, although still rotating areas as much as I could.  One pod turned into a bleeder and when I took it off looked possibly infected.  Luckily I tended it to right away and it was not actually infected.  The pod after that started leaking insulin and left a huge welt on my belly.  Thinking I should give my abdomen a break and with slightly cooler weather, I turned to my top butt for the next pod.  Which also turned into a bleeder.  Three pods in a row that had to come off early and resulted in high BG.  Insulet is replacing 2 of the 3 pods however that does not replace the frustration it has been to deal with this issue.  I am extremely thankful that I have an alternate pump to use instead for the time being.

Can I scream now??!  I hope you are having a much less frustrating week!