Manage diabetes well, no excuses

Diabetes requires money. How to spend money wisely is a big question. But how much does it cost? How to spend your money wisely!

The cost of treating diabetes varies from person to person
The cost of treating diabetes varies from person to person. There is a big difference between having medical insurance and not having medical insurance. Complications are different from those without complications. The number of complications is different, the severity is different, and the cost is also different. The cost of formal treatment and irregular treatment is even different. Then let’s start with basic regular diabetes treatment.

newly diagnosed diabetes
Take me as an example. After I was diagnosed with diabetes, I was hospitalized for two weeks, used an insulin pump for two weeks, and screened for related complications. It cost more than 10,000 yuan, and most of it was reimbursed by medical insurance because the company provided supplementary medical insurance. After all, I spent basically no money.

Regular inspection fee: 1,000 yuan/year
Regular check-ups for people with diabetes are crucial to preventing complications. A glycosylated hemoglobin test every three months costs about 80 yuan each time; a fundus examination at least once a year, a renal function test at least once every six months, an annual foot examination and other tests related to diabetes complications. The cost of these is estimated to be 1 About a thousand yuan.

Daily monitoring cost: 1,000 yuan/year

Monitoring whether a diabetic patient's blood sugar is well controlled is very important. Each diabetic patient must have his or her own home blood glucose meter, and cheap test strips cost 1 yuan. The average number of monitoring times per day for diabetic patients is 2-3 times. This cost is about 1,000 yuan a year. If you are a type 1 diabetic patient, the monitoring frequency will be more and the cost will be more.

Medication cost: several hundred to several thousand
The cost of medication will vary depending on the medication. If you use the cheapest drug, metformin, it will cost several hundred yuan a year. If you use imported drugs, it will cost about several thousand yuan a year. The cost of using insulin is several thousand, and the needles used for insulin pens are not reimbursable.

Complication costs skyrocket
The above are the most basic expenses for managing diabetes. If there are complications, the cost will be completely different. Any complication would be unbearable for ordinary working-class people.

Minor complications require medication, which incurs new medication costs. Severe complications require surgery, such as diabetic foot and amputation, which will cost at least tens of thousands.

If diabetic eye disease is treated surgically, a single treatment will cost tens of thousands of yuan. If it is the late stage of diabetic nephropathy - uremia, the cost will be even higher. The cost of one hemodialysis is about 500 yuan, and hemodialysis is required three times a week. The cost of hemodialysis surgery for leakage also costs tens of thousands of yuan. A relative I know spent more than 100,000 yuan in the ICU ward because of high potassium in his blood after dialysis. In addition, the dialysis was not timely.

If there are complications of myocardial infarction or cerebral infarction, the cost will be very high. Especially in the later stages, various complications of diabetes are mixed together, and hundreds of thousands or millions will be spent. The money spent on treatment will not make a big difference, because the treatment of complications in the later stage can only maintain life, but cannot cure it. . For diabetic patients with multiple complications, if the complications are not controlled in the early stage, it can be said to be hopeless and painful in the later stage.

There are many complications, such as peripheral neuropathy, skin diseases, depression, cancer, gastrointestinal diseases, etc., which are all costly diseases.

The above are all the costs of formal treatment. If you do not receive formal treatment, believe that some medicine can cure diabetes, or false health products, the cost will be even higher.

Spend a little money, save a lot of money

The cost of diabetes management is very small, several thousand dollars a year, and those with medical insurance basically don’t have to spend much money themselves. Most people can afford it.

However, if diabetes is not managed well in the early stage, complications will come to the door in about 5 years. At that time, it can be said that it will bring a catastrophic burden to the entire family's economy. The cost of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions is not an exaggeration. But despite the money spent, the complications will not be reversed, only maintained.

Some people may ask, why can’t it be cured? Because diabetes is a disease of blood vessels, when a patient's entire blood vessels have problems, complications may occur wherever blood flows. If all blood vessels have problems, how to treat it?

Diabetes is not scary, but complications are scary. Don’t save money on blood sugar monitoring and physical examinations, otherwise you will only spend more money if you get complications.