Monday, October 28, 2024 at 1:59 AM
After what, 3 weeks of being stalled at 329, I’ve finally gotten off that ledge and lost another 5 pounds. For those keeping score at home, I’m at 324 pounds, making me 53 pounds down from 377 when I Started 13 weeks and 14 injections ago. Anybody start a pool yet?
Dunno if you noticed, but I didn’t put an entry up last week. I had every intention of posting a “new chapter” video of me showing you the box with the increased dosage, the needle, and then the puncture, just like the video from when I first started posting these updates. But the app I was using had horrible latency issues, I couldn’t choreograph the moves right, and worst of all, I forgot to redact mine and Dr. E’s PII. But mostly, I didn’t want to post another post about “poor me, stuck at the same weight, but I’m trying” No news is no news.
Which leads us to this week and the news, which is actually ground I’ve covered here before.
Still not trying hard enough. I’ve been skipping astronaut legs because I’ve been wrapped in work and 3D printing stuff and window shopping for hats and guitars. The upside is between that and the appetite suppressants, I’ve been forgetting to eat. There’s still a Stouffer’s Lasagna (360 Calories, 40g Carbs, 22g Protein, 12g fat) in the microwave from 2 nights ago. I made up for it tonight with my usual Prime Rib/1cup mashed/side salad Sunday night feast. Hey, but it’s still working, right?
The evil Insurance company denied my prescription saying “There is no indication that the patient has type 2 diabetes mellitus. Any other use is considered experimental, investigational or unproven, including the following (this list may not be all inclusive): 1. Weight Loss Treatment; 2. Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus; 3. Prediabetes/Diabetes Prevention; 4. Metabolic Syndrome”. This was all in a letter from their doctor who sits on the “Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee”, none of who work for the evil insurance company. There is the rebranded version of Mounjaro that is FDA approved for weight loss, Zepbound, but it’s not covered under the evil insurance company’s plan with no explanation given. In other words , they refuse to cover the weight loss version of the drug, regardless of diagnosis, and they play the legal technicality game with the diabetes specific equivalent. Never mind millions of obese people have had it prescribed by millions of doctors with miracle level results. I was notified of this decision in a letter from their doctor. The letter was included as a pdf attached to an email, which included links to the prescription section of their ‘your health’ website, which included a helpful graph explaining where I was in the prescription approval process.
Step 1 Inquiry Received.
Step 2 Outreach to Prescriber.
Step 3 In Review.
Step 4 Approved, Denied, Withdrawn or Other.
Good news, they’ve made sure that there is an appeal process. All I have to do is get with my prescibing Dr. and plead my case in a written appeal and then mail it to their P.O. Box. Which is in a completely different state from their corporate headquarters and the doctor who denied the appeal. There’s also a fax number provided if I want to expedite the process. They might as well have had me fill out a form that was kept at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying, ‘Beware of the Leopard’.
Fucking Bastards. (sorry mom).
So… I bit the bullet and paid out of pocket. Thank God the insurance company provided a handy discount card! Original price: $1260. With the discount, $992. Poor Stephanie at the CVS. She did everything she could to help me, but she thought I was taking it out on her when I told her that that one month’s supply was the equivalent of 2 car payments, 1 mortgage payment, or a really great weekend in Vegas. I had the funds to pay out of pocket, so I did, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do that in the coming months. Dr. E. says compounding is our safety net, and I believe her. We’ll hammer out the details next week. But that means an actual bottle and a syringe instead of the handy and safe and mostly idiot proof injectors, and it also means it was mixed by Bob at the corner rite-ade. But it’s safe right? And there won’t be any issues getting the compounded from Bob in the coming months, right? RIGHT? RIGHT?