Oh, What A Wicked Web Might Be In The Possible Weaving Process

Farmer H has a stuck-on blood sugar tester thingy. It's on his upper arm (not his PopArm!), and I think he scans it with a hand-held thingy to get a reading, which it records. I don't know all the specifics. It's not like I'm responsible for trying to keep him alive. Other than decree that he stop eating Casey's donuts, and refusing to buy regular candy for him, I pretty much stay out of his everyday medical procedures. He has The Diabeetus, you know.

A few weeks ago, Farmer H's scanner thingy went bonkers. It lost all the saved data that he was supposed to be showing his doctor at his next 3-month appointment. He was doing so well, too. Conscientiously checking, and bragging about his results. He had his blood sugar down to an average that she was wanting. I think in his case, it was 120. He kept checking it three times a day, or more. I don't know if it started keeping all the readings again or not.

Anyhoo... last week Farmer H said his morning reading was 46! That was worrisome. Mine was down to 48 after a 3-hour glucose tolerance test before having baby Genius, and I was so addled I could barely put the gas nozzle back on the pump after refueling on the way home. Technically, they should have never let me leave the hospital lab like that, but I didn't think to try to sue them...

Anyhoo... Farmer H didn't seem any more addled than usual. He said he felt fine. Normal. I told him he should do a finger stick to make sure that thing was working. He said he didn't have any strips, since his doctor had put him (at his request, poor baby, can't poke his widdle fingers because it hurts) on this arm sticker tester thingy. His doctor sent the strip prescription to the pharmacy, but they gave him a box of those disc thingies that go on his upper arm. Which he didn't know until he opened the bag to use the strips he thought were inside. THEN when he went back to his pharmacy, they said they didn't know what kind of actual strips it took!!! Apparently, they were special strips that went with this machine. Though why you'd want it with a special arm sticker disc thingy in place, I don't know. The old fashioned ones would seem to be the way to go for poking your finger again.

Anyhoo... Farmer H tried multiple times to call the company to see if his blood sugar arm tester reader thingy might just need calibration. Every time he called, he got a message that there was a 30-minute wait. Or a message to call during business hours, eastern time. Finally, at his Storage Unit Store on Friday morning, he got through to them. It was a 52-minute call.

"That lady kept arguing with me, and interrupting to ask things that had nothing to do with my machine. Then she went into a long description of how it works. I finally said, 'Look, lady, I don't care how it works! I'm telling you it lost its memory! All my data that was stored! And now it gives me a reading of 46 when a stick gives me 126.' And SHE said, 'Why are you sticking? It says you only stick if the arrow is horizontal.' So I told her, 'It IS horizontal! That's what I've been telling you!' Then she asked if I took aspirin every day. That will affect the results if I take over 650 milligrams. But I'd already told her I take ONE aspirin, which is NOT over 650 milligrams. She finally said, 'We are going to replace your machine, but we need you to send the old one in so we can see what's wrong with it.' I told her fine, I didn't want the old one. It doesn't work!"

Here's the deal. I'm pretty sure the drug company knows there are problems with this device. They give their reps a script to follow when people call to complain. So many are calling to complain, and getting this lengthy scripty run-around, that their phone lines are perpetually busy, with a 30-minute wait. Many of those callers are going to give up and not wait. It's all about the mighty dollar. They don't want to give away one more working machine than they have to. They probably refurbish the broken ones and send them out as replacements!

The companies are quick to push the newest gadgets and drugs. Bombard you with commercials to ask your doctor for them. Then the insurance pushes for a 90-day prescription. So some people end up dying in that time before using it all, or some find out they're allergic and can't use it. But the drug companies have already made their money. They're not going to give a refund. Why else would the drug companies spend so much money pushing these new drugs and devices? It's because they are MAKING MORE MONEY off them! They're not selfless, people-helping entities!

I read a comment the other day that THEY are trying to kill off everyone over 50. Not sure which THEY is being referred to, since I don't know which conspiracy site I was reading at the time. THEY could have meant younger people, pharmaceutical companies, the government, the illuminati. The point of the comment was that older people know too much. We think for ourselves, and don't believe everything we read or hear on the news. We are not putting money back into the system, but drawing out what we've worked for all these years. So we must be eliminated. Just a conspiracy, but something to think about.

If Farmer H's doctor saw his readings, and thought he was consistently having his blood sugar drop to 46, she would have changed his medicine, or taken him off it completely. Which would eventually kill him. For some reason, that arm disc tester thingy rep DID NOT want people comparing their machine readings with an actual blood stick. Uh huh. Why not? Because THEN people would know their actual readings!

And another thing... I just read about another recall of certain blood pressure meds because they contain a cancer-causing agent. Or DO they? Either the drug companies (which supposedly submit their wares to extensive testing) have been giving old people cancer-causing blood pressure meds for years now... or else the drugs don't contain cancer-causing agents, but the drug companies don't want you to have access to these blood pressure meds any more. So either they've been killing people all along, or they're going to start killing people who can't take this medicine any more. (Just sayin', one of the guys at school had to try four or five different kinds of blood pressure meds before they could get his under control. So some people may not be able to take alternatives successfully.)

Yeah. This is just crazy ol' Mrs. Hillbilly Mom with her conspiracy theories. You can believe that the government and big pharma have your best interests in mind. Go ahead. You're entitled to your opinion. I, myself, think otherwise.