I received a reply from my endocrinologist this morning. She agreed that my blood glucose readings were pretty good. I am to continue taking six readings per day and if the readings remain in the normal range, then I won’t need the insulin shots. She said I should be between 90-130 mg/dL before meals and <180 mg/dL two hours after meals.
I already picked up the first order from the pharmacy however. It’s something called Toujeo® Solostar®. I’ve used insulin briefly in the past, and I had to fill my own syringes from a glass vial for each injection. In this case, Toujeo comes in pre-filled pens filled with insulin, and you can adjust the dosage administered. I also got a bag of injector tips so you have to replace that part each time. The box comes with three pens, each with 450 units, and my prescription is for 15 units/day. Each pen is good for a month of injections so she gave me a three month supply. Since it’s late in the year, I already met my out-of-pocket maximum for my work health insurance so I did not have to pay anything. However, my work did paid about $400 for the box, which comes to ~30¢/unit or $4.50 per dose. Here is a list of prices for different insulin brands:
I guess that sounds expensive but a three month supply of my other glucose medicine, Tradjenta 5 mg, costs over $1,000. I understand that drug companies need to make money, but even I find these prices ridiculous. Even worse in my case, I’m not even using the Toujeo yet. The directions on the box says it will keep until the expiration date (November 2022) if I keep it in the refrigerator so I have two years to use it.
Life with chronic diseases 