Trouble in (CGM) Paradise

Okay, I have been having quite the trouble getting my new CGM. I'm upgrading from a Dexcom with Share to a G5, which you wouldn't think would be that big of an issue, but apparently it is. This all started about a month ago in the middle of June when my transmitter started giving my a low battery alarm. I figured I could call customer service and ask if I could upgrade, since I've had my current one forever and I would love to be able to see my CGM data on my phone. I called on the Sunday I started having low battery alarms and was nicely told to call back Monday during business hours, so I could talk to the people in charge of upgrades to get started

After calling them during lunch hours at the day camp I was volunteering for, I was told that I would need to call my distributor (Liberty Medical, which recently bought out my old distributor, Neighborhood diabetes) to get everything ordered and ready to go. I then called Liberty, and was told I was approved to get a new one; all they had to do was confirm my insurance info and then send out my prescription to my endo and I should have it in the next few weeks. Two days later, my mom got a call asking to confirm some insurance info, so I called Liberty back and gave them my info, assured this would happen pretty soon, especially since my transmitter was dead.

A few weeks later, I still hadn't gotten my shiny, new CGM, so I gave Liberty a call and they told me that they were waiting on my endocrinologist to send in their prescription. I gave my endo a call and left a message for her assistant and my call was never returned. Yesterday, I got fed up with all of this and gave Liberty another call. Apparently my endocrinologist still hadn't sent over my prescription, which was ridiculous, since it has been almost a month. I called the doctor's assistant twice and left a voicemail, but wasn't sure if I had called the right extension, since there was no message saying I had reached my endo's assistant, just a generic voicemail message that said to leave a message after the beep. At this point I was furious because no one was telling me anything and I couldn't reach an actual live person. My mom told me to call the practice manager to talk to him, but he also didn't pick up, so as a last resort she recommended calling the scheduling department because they usually have to pick up. After calling twice, someone finally picked up and I explained my situation. She said she could transfer me to the person in charge of CGMs. Relieved, I let her transfer me and then got a voicemail message saying that this person was on vacation until July 27th. I was so fed up with this at this point, but I left her a message and hung up.

At this point I was desperate for at least a transmitter and I called Dexcom to ask if they could try to send me a replacement transmitter until I could get my new CGM. I was told to call Liberty because they are in charge of all distribution, so I did and the woman on the line told me she couldn't do anything to help. After that I started crying because I was so mad at everyone for seeming to not care one bit about whether I have an actual, working CGM. My mom reminded me that we had an endo appointment the next day, so we decided to talk about it with them, in person. That way they at least had to talk to me, rather than sending me to voicemail.

The next day, my mom asked if she could speak to the practice manager and talked to his assistant. Apparently the endo sent the prescription last week and that Liberty should already have it. I called Liberty and explained my situation for the 10,000th time, and after talking to the documents department I was informed that they did in fact have the prescription and had been in possession of it since July 1st. An entire week ago. They told me that they would now be sending my insurance the info for approval and I asked how long it would take: "Oh probably 7-10 days for approval; we're not sure when you'll get your CGM." Great. So now I'm waiting for my CGM for an unspecified amount of time.

I'll be calling back next week to make sure everything is still going into motion, so I know what's happening, since Liberty obviously has no clue what the heck is going on. My endocrinologist also mentioned that Liberty has been moving very slowly ever since they merged with Neighborhood diabetes, so that's always promising.

While I was sitting in my dad's hotel room the night before orientation, (There will be more to come about that soon!) he called my mom to let her know that we were safely at the hotel. While on the phone, my mom told him that my CGM had been delivered to my house! I honestly thought I was going to have to call them sometime Thursday during orientation, so this was definitely a pleasant surprise, even though I couldn't use it until Thursday night. I asked my dad to call Liberty to check and see if my Dexcom sites had been shipped too, since you never really know with distributors these days. (See above post...) Thankfully, my sites came too, so all is well for now. At least until 3 months from now when I have to order more sites...

Moral of the Story: I can finally wear my owl GrifGrip and that is the real important thing here.