ADVANCING DIABETES seems to be complicating my total health picture. How do you deal with these two disease at the HMO level? Are the diabetes complications hindering your obtaining IvIG or PE?
I have a new HMO starting in July. I heard from a neuro nurse that it took two years for a patient she cared for to obtain IvIG from this HMO.
This HMO is called HMSA, but it is really Blue Shield/Blue Cross.
I definitely have CIDP as proven by recovery from IvIG. However, I know I will soon hit a big roadblock of medical definitions and bean-counters and administrators.
If I don't make it past the roadblocks by 07/10/2014, I will turn into a toad, always in 24/7 pain, withering away to nothing and screaming for my mommy! At 60 I can still scream for mommy when I hurt. It relaxes me, lol.
i had the diabetes under control with an average of 6 (Ha1C) for 2 years; recently it spiked to an Ha1C of 7.9.
I've had diabetes (type 1) for more than 49 years. For the last 18 years, my glycohemoglobin A1c has never exceeded 6.5. Nonetheless, my neuropathy symptoms have gotten much worse during this time. About 15 years ago, I began receiving IVIG, not for neuropathy, but for common variable immune deficiency. None of my neurologists (I'm on my third now) have diagnosed me with an autoimmune neuropathy, even though my neuropathy symptoms have improved with increases in my IVIG dosage. They attribute my neuropathy to diabetes. Apparently, I don't meet the criteria for CIDP, because I began taking IVIG before being examined by the neurologists. (My immunologist prescribed IVIG.)
I can't tell you anything about HMOs since I've never been enrolled in one. The HMO probably would like you to try medicines much less expensive than IVIG. I was prescribed prednisone to treat another autoimmune disease (immune thrombocytopenia purpura, which is a bleeding disorder caused by a deficiency of blood platelets). A very small dose of prednisone compared to what some CIDP patients get doubled my need for insulin. Despite the fact that I stopped taking prednisone years ago, I've never regained my previous sensitivity to insulin. You may need to get a diabetes specialist to specify that prednisone and similar steroids are incompatible with proper control of your diabetes. I hope that your worries about the new HMO will prove unfounded.