This morning I set about getting Lantus and figuring out the doctor situation from yesterday. So I followed my plan to call the new doctor's nurse first then the CDE I know at the clinic if that didn't work. I was prepared to raise a little "cane" if need be, but desperately hoped they would make it easy.
I called the new doctor's nurse wanting to speak to the nice one that I spoke to yesterday. Unfortunately, she wasn't in. So I ended up speaking to another nurse, who was quite rude. When she first began the phone call, she wouldn't let me speak to tell her about the issue which got the whole thing off to a rocky start.
After finally getting the issue on the table, she began to lecture me to say that there were plenty of available appointments open so it was not their fault that I couldn't come in to get the Lantus prescription. I'm sorry that I have a life and already arranged for an appointment that was cancelled (not by my choice). Is it really my fault that their availability doesn't match my availability until July? And is that really so rare?
After letting that pass, she said that I could have a primary care physician fill the prescription if I could make any of their appointments. When I explained that I was still going to see the endo in July so I didn't want to pay 2 co-pays nor spend the time (after all it means driving 3 hours each time and missing work/school up here), she started on another lecture. Her point this time was to say that a well controlled diabetic didn't need to be seen by an endo for diabetes care; a primary care physician would work just fine. At this, my voice became raised.
In the past sixteen years of this disease, I've always known that a well controlled type 1 diabetic (any diabetic!) needed to be seen by an endo in order to maintain control. A PCP cannot possibly manage this disease adequately and I do not know any type 1 that sees a PCP for their diabetes care! When I explained this to her, she fumbled and said she didn't know my background and that's true if I'm type 1 (she was staring at my patient information right then!). I swear that entire office needs a lesson in diabetes education!
Obviously, she wasn't going to give me the Lantus that I was requesting and certainly wouldn't see my point. So I asked to speak to the CDE there at the clinic. This CDE (who is diabetic herself) has been in my life since I was diagnosed as she used to work at the pediatric unit I went to after my diagnosis. I explained the situation to her and asked what she could do for me.
After some difficulty, we came to the conclusion that I would schedule an appointment with the new doctor and the CDE in July. The Lantus would be called into a local pharmacy for a 6 weeks supply to get me through until my appointments. Although it's not ideal nor my usual route of things (as I use a mail order pharmacy to save on costs), I at least feel relieved that the Lantus is no longer a problem and my appointments have been reset.
Despite that relief, I'm still frustrated at the whole ordeal and the way that the office has treated me and their backwards opinions of diabetes management. It frustrates me that the nurses don't understand that well controlled diabetics should see endos and not PCPs. It annoys me that they don't understand the basic rights of the patient and respect that a patient cannot drop their lives to come into the doctor. It makes me wonder if they have never been patients themselves, and surely they are not diabetic patients who can understand the whole picture. And on that note, it makes me want to educate them all or become one myself to change the way that patients are treated.
