I am lucky. I have insurance. Sure I pay a lot out of pocket each month but the coverage is decent. Especially for my prescriptions. My co-payment is not too bad which I am thankful for since I have not only my insulin and strips for my BG machine to buy but also 4 pills for other ailments. But each January I get shocked by the same surprise.

My $200 deductible. Now I am not fortunate enough to be able to drop 2 "C-notes" here and there. I live pretty much check to check and unless I get an extra $200 for "passing Go" then I am gonna have a problem. Luckily the pharmacy I use is awesome. They gave me one bottle of insulin and are letting me come back on my next payday to pick up and pay for the rest of my order. What life savers, literally. (READ MORE)

I don't have to take a ton of medicines to maintain my health, but there are a number of bottles from several pharmacies in my bathroom cabinet and by the kitchen sink. It's easy for me to know when I need to renew these meds because, well, when I look in the bottle and see only two pills left I know it's time to call the pharmacy!

But with insulin, there are no pills to count, no obvious visual reminder (unless you run out, of course!) that it's time to renew. It's only supposed to be good for about 28 days, but I never count the days. When I think it's about time to renew, I may look at the date on the prescription label to see when I last renewed it. If it's around the same time frame a month later, I know it's time to renew. However, it's usually more than 28 days; often it's more like 30 or 32 days. But what's a couple of days, right? (READ MORE)