They will set up appointments with public medical and psychological experts.

The experts will officially diagnose him and he will pay based on what he can afford.

I did this for three years.

The help is there. But the lines are long and it will not be very 'convenient'.

But you and your family will be so GRATEFUL when he is better.

My experience in the system when I was financially stranded (and the kindness) of my extended family convinced me that we MUST have these safeguards in place for our weaker citizens.

It is why I changed from Republican to Democrat.

Please email me if you wish to discuss further.

awesome


So it took a personal experience?

And my mom is of the opinion that you think about yourself, only.

So it took my living with my aunt and uncle during hard times and experiencing their generosity to me and to others to realize that good and generous people are out there. And I wanted to be like them. And to see the world their way and to believe their beliefs. And now I do.

Or at least for part of it?

It can be very difficult - yes, embarrassing - to ask for help when it's needed.

I would encourage your brother, or someone acting on his behalf, to get in touch with his physician about programs in your area.

This might also be useful:
http://www.PPARx.org/

Who produces his insulin? Call the company or go to their web site. When I was on insulin I had a half off card for Novolog that I signed up for on their site.

One thing I have found is that Walmart has incredibly cheap insulin. They set a two year contract with a big supplier like Lily and the supplier agrees to produce insulin under the Walmart Relion brand. I know for NPH Lily's Humulin N is $87.00 at Walgreen's, where Walmart's Relion NPH is $25. There may be a very slight difference in metabolism rates but it can be adjusted to with proper monitoring within a week or two. From a quick look at the Relion website they only produce R, N and 70/30 types not the super fast acting ones like Humolog so it depends what type(s) he is currently using if Relion has an equivalent and is even a possibility. I would talk to his doctor or whoever would prescribe his insulin to see if they can set him up with a dosing schedule on this brand if possible.

http://www.relion.com/diabetes/insulin

Their pharmacy program is wonderful. There are lots of common meds that are $5, and even the more unusual ones seem to be cheaper. I think they started it a few years ago when they started running those "we're not evil" ads.

Insulin has gone from about $29 to $89 in the 8 years I have been buying it for my mother. That is a huge jump when you use 2-3 vials a month. I've seen up to a $10 difference between pharmacies but nothing like the current $60 difference between everyone else and Walmart. Unfortunately, they just switched suppliers from the brand my mother uses and although all brands of the same type should work almost identically, I am afraid to switch her during the stressful fall season. I did do the research and know things should work out fine with switching but will wait until it can be done more smoothly in the Spring.

I really think Medicare part D gave the drug companies free-reign to raise prices dramatically for out-of-pocket customers. Just like all insured items the retail price is inflated so that the deals with the discounted insurance company payments still give the manufacturer the real price they want for the product. It is the uninsured person that gets stuck paying the inflated retail.

per month from the local pharmacy.

We get some of her meds from Costco and some from King Soopers(kroger) in order to afford everything she needs we have to shop around.

If he has type 2, the good news is that it may be reversible through lifestyle changes. So he wouldn't have to worry about insulin or having diabetes.

Be prepared though. If he has diabetes to the point where he needs insulin, there will be other health issues cropping up as time passes, caused or exacerbated by the diabetes.

He told me today he stopped taking them a year ago because he couldn't afford THAT prescription. He improved his diet for a while and was doing better and then got depressed and just ate everything in site. He watches things like Man Vs Food and tries to find places where he can get 2lb hamburgers. He hates vegetables. He told me that he and a friend invented a burger with bacon, pulled pork, pastrami, onions and a fried egg, all on top of a 1/3lb burger. This is how he eats. He drinks 1 2 liter bottle of mountain dew a day. His eating is ATROCIOUS! But he refuses to change his habits. i think it is also part of the Aspergers, and the OCD that goes along with it. I talk to him and he yeses me to death but then doesn't change anything. He is headed for major trouble which is why I am desperate to get him at LEAST on the insulin now that it has gotten this bad! I dint know what else I will be able to do. I have only just gotten a job after 7months being unemployed, I have a 17 year old daughter with Aspergers who is a hand full too. Plus I live in NH and he lives in MA. So its all crazy, that is why I am so grateful for the many different suggestions so I have a lot of different things to try.


Thank you!

At some point you have to realize that you are not in control of his behavior. Only he can solve his problems, just as he caused them (the type 2 diabetes).

He is at risk of stroke, losing his eyesight, losing limbs. My sister, a type 2 diabetic who also smoked, had a major stroke. She had to go into a nursing home at a young age. Medicaid. Very sad. She lived a very unhealthy lifestyle. Ultimately, only she could control her behavior. The family couldn't do it for her.

If you can help him with this, that's great. I don't know how old he is, but if he's an adult, he has to take control and own his own health problems. You are a good sis, but you can't fix things for him. If you could, he wouldn't have diabetes in the first place.

This is what our family came to feel about my sister. It's very sad. It's ironic, too, that now she doesn't have to worry about working or paying for medicine. And now she would like to be able to work, when she refused to work or couldn't keep a job for years. Her choices.

I do what I can and fight the guilt for not doing more. But I am learning to let go of the guilt. I simply have had no control over any of her behavior, ever. If I did have, she would've been gainfully employed and living a healthy lifestyle.

Before her stroke, she got medicine for different things from the pharma company itself, in one instance, and from Medicaid, in another instance. She had COPD and other things, besides diabetes.

I am 46, our mother died when she was 51 of lung cancer so I became the mother figure. I have another brother who is 38. My father is an alcoholic piece of shit so he is useless. The only decent thing he has done is give my brother a place to live but he doesnt give a shit what is going on with him.

I hear you, I know that only he can control his behavior and he seems to enjoy telling me about the garbage he eats, almost like he is challenging me in some way. He worked a horrible dead end job for about 8 years which he was just fired from but he is a sweet loving kind person. In a lot of ways he has a very childish side to him. He loved childrens' movies, he really has the maturity of a 14 or 15 year old. Its the undiagnosed Aspergers thing, I havent been able to get that addressed for him.

But you are right, it is his life and he is going to have to decide to take care of himself or at least try!!!

fwiw

neuropathy, kidney failure

"At some point you have to realize that you are not in control of his behavior. Only he can solve his problems, just as he caused them (the type 2 diabetes)."

A PROPENSITY to get it may be genetic. But it is totally caused by lifestyle. If it runs in the family, you have to be MORE vigilant about lifestyle. Not live your life however you want and then say, Oh, well, it's genetic. No, it's not.

Please don't perpetuate the myth that type 2 diabetes just "happens" to people who are living healthy lifestyles, of normal weight, exercising, etc. The fact is....it doesn't.

If you're obese, don't exercise regularly, eat fast food, etc., etc.,.....you probably will get type 2 diabetes. If it runs in your family, you will probably get it sooner.

It "runs" in my family. At least that's what the unhealthy, obese ones in my family say. The non-obese ones who eat veggies, don't eat fast food, exercise....NONE of them have it. That's becuase although we have a propensity to getting it, we don't live the lifestyle that CAUSES it.

The real kicker is....IT IS REVERSIBLE if you change your lifestyle early enough. And sometimes even later. If it's before you have to take insulin, or even pills, if you come to a screeching halt in bad lifestyle choices, and reverse yourself, you will also reverse the diabetes. That's because it's CAUSED by lifestyle.

Last edited Mon Nov 12, 2012, 10:42 AM - Edit history (1)

In my own personal experience, three of the five members of my family who have type 2 diabetes are normal to underweight (and were all their lives), and although I did not say it specifically live active and healthy lifestyles both before and after diagnosis with diabetes. A fourth was overweight (not obese - 140-150 at 5'2&quot , but maintained a healthier diet than the other three as well as exercising for an hour a day three times a week all of her adult life.

Sixty percent of the people I know intimately enough to know lifestyle both before and after diagnosis have type 2 diabetes for reasons other than lifestyle. That is not representative of the average population, but not particularly surprising because of the people I know, 2 of the three share the genetic make-up for non-obese diabetes.

So, you are just flat wrong that it is always caused by bad lifestyle choices.

Non-obese patients with type 2 diabetes

It's not just fat people with diabetes

Type 2 diabetes in non-obese Indian subects.

People with Type 2 diabetes that is not caused by lifestyle (like my spouse, uncle, and grandfather) are often left with inadequate care because ALL of the easily accessible care is geared toward lifestyle management of diabetes. For these individuals with a healthy lifestyle, the consequences of being left without adequate nutrition counseling can be devastating, because the dietary/nutrition guidance is all geared toward minimizing caloric intake in order to decrease weight (and failure to maintain weight in non-obese type 2 diabetics is a mortality risk for non-obese people with type 2 diabetes).

That is not to say that the vast majority of people with type 2 diabetes (90-95%) don't need to make lifestyle changes to control their diabetes. Whether or not the insulin resistance is reversible (which is a question not resolved, as far as I can determine), it is at least highly manageable without medication for most individuals when lifestyle played a major role (or was the sole cause) in the manifestation of diabetes. (For my mother whose BMI topped out at 28 (mid-overweight range), ultimately it was not permanently manageable - after years of managing it by lifestyle changes it has progressed to the point at which she needs to also take metformin. For my spouse, who was always active and whose BMI never exceeded 25 (top normal weight), and was around 20 (mid-normal range) most of her life it was not manageable at all by lifestyle).

Everyone on my maternal side, grandmother, mother, aunts and uncles all developed Type II diabetes in their later years. My sister now found out that she has it. I was told by my doctor that I am pre-diabetic. I am not obese, do not eat fast food, and am a vegetarian. My only sin is that I do not exercise regularly because of a back problem. I am 73 years old, so I think I am doing pretty good despite my age. I do have a few health problems due to my smoking, but I am working on quitting.

If he's not able to meet his own medical needs and whoever's caring for him can't or won't, I think you probably ought to call adult protective services or whatever the local equivalent is. They'll send out a social worker and help get him hooked up with the services he needs.

Ask about indigent clinics.

Is your brother a type I or type II diabetic?

How long has he been on insulin?

Is the hoarding a clear, "in your face" danger to himself and/or others?

Has he done or said anything today/very recently that might be constituted as a danger to himself or others?

He was just this week told he was going to have to go on insulin. As far as the hording, everything is in piles, he keeps cardboard boxes, comic books and has lot of electronics but its all tossed around and heaped up. He washes his clothes but they are all over the floor and everywhere. Its not as bad as on tv but its pretty bad. Is he in a healthy environment? No, Do I think he is in Immediate danger? I don't think so. I think if I can get him feeling physically better I can help him work on cleaning up his living space and I also want to get him in to some kind of housing.

But in NE Ohio, at least one supermarket pharmacy provides free diabetes meds (not insulin, but at least metformin and relatives of it).

Last edited Sun Nov 11, 2012, 10:24 PM - Edit history (1)

he needs to call the provider that switched him to insulin and be really, brutally frank about his new economic situation and see what they advise and what they can help him with.

If it's cheaper, he may have to go back to oral medications for the time being. Some control is still better than none.


"Cleaning up" is not generally the problem with hoarders. Usually there is some sentinel event that triggers the behavior and the hoarding is a symptom of the disturbance created by that event. It is a coping mechanism, and until the issue that created it is addressed and resolved adequately, the coping mechanism will continue. He will need to actually want and accept professional counseling or I'm afraid to say that aspect of his life will not likely improve.

They say they help those who can't afford the drug..They are the leading diabetes drug company I think... http://novonordisk.com/

and it's made by a major brand insulin maker.

My dog was diabetic and I searched the best product at the lowest price and walmart was it, unfortunately

I would imagine he should be able to.

Look for a community clinic in his area. They will be able to set him up on a program called PCAP. He'll have to show documentation of his income. If he qualifies they will send him his insulin for free. I have had to use this. If no local community clinics....then public aid offices might be able to point him in the right direction.

And find graphic photos of diabetic complications. I can't guarantee it will work, but sometimes it does. Also there are support groups. He might find help that way.

As to insulin, find out if he qualifies for Medicaid, he just may.

But realize he might just might refuse to give himself shots, and that it s not just insulin, you need to actually calculate the units which depend on what you ate, and that mt dew is bad news. Find out if he will drink the sugar free ( do they make it?) version of it.

Oh and good luck. Believe it or not he is a classic patient.

To say good luck in getting him the medical and mental health treatment he needs.

Might be a good time to try, as it seems he has some mental issues going there, as well with the hoarding and refusal to take responsibility for his own health. Something to consider, as it usually takes a few tries to get it approved. That would allow him to have access to subsidized housing, etc., and probably some type of Medicaid.

You can only do so much. Great of you to try, but if he's openly eating garbage food and enjoys telling you about it, there's not much you can do. But.. wait.. if he can't afford 7.00 a day for insulin, how is he affording junk food and 2lb. hamburger. You've taken on a lot, be sure that you haven't slipped into co-dependent status. I've dealt with family members like that before, and what I do is find the resources and say "here you go," and basically let him know that if he continues to trash his health like that, you can't stop him, but you won't be there to fix everything when it goes to hell. He could use some tough love and the phone number to places he can call himself.

desire to "save them" all the time. It's all too easy to fall into codependency when you are a compassionate person and want to help others. Sometimes it really helps to go to meetings or even on-line meetings, like Al-anon. Even if the issue isn't alcohol, which it doesn't seem to be in this case, I think Al-Anon is a good resource for anyone who might be struggling to establish healthy boundaries with family members and a great source of comfort and support.

Sometimes I think every person should be in meetings like those just because our society is so crazy lately, we could all use the support.

I hope your brother will be okay but the only thing you can do is give him a list of resources/choices and it will be up to him to choose. I hope that you will be able to have a happy life and feel okay inside, no matter what choices he makes.

Expect a denial on the first round or hire a lawyer experienced with navigating the process. I will give him some income as well as access to medical care. Perhaps some counseling will help him with other issues as well.

my doc gives me the meds I cannot afford from the samples he has. He gives me samples for 2 of my diabetic meds.

Just tell the person at the door you are going to the pharmacy.
Costco is especially awesome about prescriptions with no insurance.
I literally burst into tears when they told me how little they charged for the drugs my son takes for PTSD.
We had been struggling for years. (Not a veteran, just some horrific violence done to him as an adult. Twice.)

I have purchased insulin for my ex-daughter-in-law at WalMart. No prescription needed.

In my are and there is only a $6 dollar savings on Insulin as a non-member and $9 as a member. Not really worth the trip from my research. Walmart really does win on this one thing, enough to bite the bullet and go there once a month or so and buy a couple of vials.

My grandsons runs over 1000 per month. There is a page here on DU somewhere that helps you find clinics and such. Now, I don't know about insulin. We are in Indiana. The office visit for our clinic in Marion is 19$ I think. I would try to find that calculator, (I will post to you if I find it) and see if you have any options closer.

I would talk to the doctors office to see what they know. I would contact the drug companies and see if they have a program. I would apply immediately for medicaid.

I would contact the American Diabetic Assoc. and see if they know of or have programs for you.

test strips can be bought on Ebay for about half price. Your doctors office may be able to give you some insulin too.

Good luck. This is an issue that is going to get bigger for everyone who is not rich. It is a shame that we have to try to buy our medical supplies on ebay.

What state are you in?

I live in New Hampshire

I'm in MA and use Commonwealth Care-a step up from MA health (which our state's version of Medicaid). Here's the connector website: https://www.mahealthconnector.org/portal/site/connector/

It sounds like he could be eligible for MA health-the application is on the website (see above post). This could cover him for everything. Commonwealth Care has different plan types and is based on income, so that could be an option as well.

Also, being a member of MA Health or the lower Commonwealth Care types create eligibility for other state and private help. For example, Columbia Gas gives up to a 20% discount for Type I and Type II plans.

All I can say, is that it works for me, I'm very grateful to be a resident here.

Best wishes to you both!

This is all very difficult living where I am and where he is and in his circumstances. I have just become employed after 7 months of being out of work, I know that isnt long for a lot of folks but financially it has been a killer. I have dear friends who are supportive and advise me to step back and force my father to live up to his responsibility, but I cant get away from feeling responsible, so all of these suggestions have been wonderful information to work with.

Thank you

Now, have you heard about Wishadoo because until he gets the help he needs, that is what the power of the people is for
http://www.wishadoo.org/

Heck I am sure Duers would sign up to support a couple months of insulin within 5 minutes.

I'm fortunate in the fact that I have a secure job with good health insurance. I'll also add that I will be one who will gladly accept a tax hike very soon. No one likes to pay more in taxes, but I can afford to, particularly if it will benefit those in need like your brother.

I got a 3 month supply from Lilly for Humalog and Ultralente

http://www.lillytruassist.com/Pages/index.aspx