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    • 2 hours, 37 minutes ago
      NANCY NECIA likes your comment at
      Have you had to switch diabetes medications in the past year due to health insurance changes?
      My doctor switched me without telling me from Humalog to novolog and told me it was due to insurance. I’m on Medicare and I never saw anything that said that was necessary. They call me periodically to see how I’m doing and I told them I didn’t appreciate being switched without being told. I thought initially it was a mistake when I picked it up at the pharmacy but they said that’s what the doctor ordered. Then the next visit, he told me all my issues with insulin switching and preauthorization holdups was my fault basically because he says “I have the wrong insurance”. Like I’m going to NOT use Medicare. My opinion? I think I have the wrong doctor, but it’s a hassle to switch.
    • 2 hours, 38 minutes ago
      NANCY NECIA likes your comment at
      Have you had to switch diabetes medications in the past year due to health insurance changes?
      Not this year, but in 2026, I need to switch from Humalog to Novolog.
    • 5 hours, 8 minutes ago
      mojoseje likes your comment at
      Have you had to switch diabetes medications in the past year due to health insurance changes?
      NEVER accerptable or appropriate. Nobody's healthcare should ever be determined by a third party's profit margin(s) to determine what we are forced to take.
    • 7 hours, 11 minutes ago
      Phyllis Biederman likes your comment at
      Have you had to switch diabetes medications in the past year due to health insurance changes?
      My doctor switched me without telling me from Humalog to novolog and told me it was due to insurance. I’m on Medicare and I never saw anything that said that was necessary. They call me periodically to see how I’m doing and I told them I didn’t appreciate being switched without being told. I thought initially it was a mistake when I picked it up at the pharmacy but they said that’s what the doctor ordered. Then the next visit, he told me all my issues with insulin switching and preauthorization holdups was my fault basically because he says “I have the wrong insurance”. Like I’m going to NOT use Medicare. My opinion? I think I have the wrong doctor, but it’s a hassle to switch.
    • 7 hours, 29 minutes ago
      Lawrence S. likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      Insurance won't cover and it was several hundred dollars.
    • 7 hours, 29 minutes ago
      Marty likes your comment at
      Have you had to switch diabetes medications in the past year due to health insurance changes?
      Had to, no. But Medicare is adding coverage for FIASP in '26 so it will be "bye, bye, bye, bye, bye" to Lyumjev!
    • 8 hours, 21 minutes ago
      Gerald Oefelein likes your comment at
      Have you had to switch diabetes medications in the past year due to health insurance changes?
      Had to, no. But Medicare is adding coverage for FIASP in '26 so it will be "bye, bye, bye, bye, bye" to Lyumjev!
    • 8 hours, 36 minutes ago
      Scott Rudolph likes your comment at
      Have you had to switch diabetes medications in the past year due to health insurance changes?
      Had to, no. But Medicare is adding coverage for FIASP in '26 so it will be "bye, bye, bye, bye, bye" to Lyumjev!
    • 1 day, 5 hours ago
      eherban1 likes your comment at
      Multiple daily injections (MDI) users: Do you use an app or other device to track your insulin dosing? Share the tools you use in the comments below!
      I use InPen and it's great. Except they aren't keeping up with iOS so you now have to unlock your phone and open the app to check IOB instead of simply looking at the home screen. You can tell when app developers aren't users, otherwise they'd know how much of a pain this is when you check 50 times a day
    • 1 day, 6 hours ago
      Trish Bowers likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      Insurance won't cover and it was several hundred dollars.
    • 1 day, 6 hours ago
      Trish Bowers likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      Glucagon is $425 for me on Medicare. It is cheaper to get an ambulance! I have an expired one that will work if I ever need it, but I won't.
    • 1 day, 6 hours ago
      Trish Bowers likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      No. During the past century I threw out many glucagon doses about 5 years after each had expired - having never used a single glucagon dose.. This century, two dose kits were disposed of and never used. At this point, in my opinion, with modern tools for accurately monitoring one's body glucose levels, AND common awareness of how one is feeling, severe low BGL can be easily avoided thus not needing "emergency' glucagon. NOTE WELL!!! what I wrote in the last sentence, does NOT apply to the very young, and some newly diagnosed who have not yet mastered insulin dosing and who have not yet been accustomed to recognizing low or quickly dropping BGL.
    • 1 day, 6 hours ago
      Trish Bowers likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      I do because it Costc me over $300 to replace it. Too expensive.
    • 1 day, 6 hours ago
      John Barbuto likes your comment at
      Multiple daily injections (MDI) users: Do you use an app or other device to track your insulin dosing? Share the tools you use in the comments below!
      Medicare has added FIASP for 2026! Besides the great news of being able to use this once again, it is one of the few fast acting insulins that works with the inPen. I am considering doing that in the new year
    • 1 day, 6 hours ago
      John Barbuto likes your comment at
      Multiple daily injections (MDI) users: Do you use an app or other device to track your insulin dosing? Share the tools you use in the comments below!
      Been using fiasp for 2 years (in the UK) and it's significantly better than novorapid. Would highly recommend to everyone, especially if you find your insulin a bit slow to act.
    • 1 day, 7 hours ago
      Lozzy E likes your comment at
      Multiple daily injections (MDI) users: Do you use an app or other device to track your insulin dosing? Share the tools you use in the comments below!
      Medicare has added FIASP for 2026! Besides the great news of being able to use this once again, it is one of the few fast acting insulins that works with the inPen. I am considering doing that in the new year
    • 1 day, 11 hours ago
      Ahh Life likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      The last Glucagon prescription that I purchased was 15 years ago. Now it's way too expensive because my insurance doesn't cover it. They just want us to either die or use ambulance service to use or send us to ER. Pretty stupid to me. I've had T1D for 52 years and never needed it really. Only 3 times during early morning hypos in 2015-16 I needed rescue to wake me.
    • 1 day, 16 hours ago
      René Wagner likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      My experience over the past 65 years is that a sugary drink and patience will bring me out of a low satisfactorily. If I’m unconscious, as has happened four or five times over that period, the EMTs know what to do.
    • 1 day, 16 hours ago
      René Wagner likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      Glucagon is $425 for me on Medicare. It is cheaper to get an ambulance! I have an expired one that will work if I ever need it, but I won't.
    • 1 day, 16 hours ago
      René Wagner likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      No I haven't a glucagon in yeans. Reason being:, every time I had a prescription, the glucaagon was never used and expired.
    • 1 day, 16 hours ago
      René Wagner likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      No. During the past century I threw out many glucagon doses about 5 years after each had expired - having never used a single glucagon dose.. This century, two dose kits were disposed of and never used. At this point, in my opinion, with modern tools for accurately monitoring one's body glucose levels, AND common awareness of how one is feeling, severe low BGL can be easily avoided thus not needing "emergency' glucagon. NOTE WELL!!! what I wrote in the last sentence, does NOT apply to the very young, and some newly diagnosed who have not yet mastered insulin dosing and who have not yet been accustomed to recognizing low or quickly dropping BGL.
    • 1 day, 16 hours ago
      René Wagner likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      I do because it Costc me over $300 to replace it. Too expensive.
    • 1 day, 16 hours ago
      René Wagner likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      Insurance won't cover and it was several hundred dollars.
    • 1 day, 16 hours ago
      René Wagner likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      No,insurance won't cover it. T1D for 45+ years and haven't had a situation where I needed it - so far so good
    • 1 day, 18 hours ago
      Vicki Breckenridge likes your comment at
      Do you have Glucagon on hand that is not expired? If not, please share why in the comments.
      Glucagon is $425 for me on Medicare. It is cheaper to get an ambulance! I have an expired one that will work if I ever need it, but I won't.
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    How often do you pre-bolus at least 5 minutes before eating?

    Home > LC Polls > How often do you pre-bolus at least 5 minutes before eating?
    Previous

    In the past year, have you been required to change medications because of your health insurance?

    Next

    How often do you pre-bolus (a bolus you complete BEFORE you eat)?

    Samantha Walsh

    Samantha Walsh has lived with type 1 diabetes for over five years since 2017. After her T1D diagnosis, she was eager to give back to the diabetes community. She is the Community and Partner Manager for T1D Exchange and helps to manage the Online Community and recruit for the T1D Exchange Registry. Prior to T1D Exchange, Samantha fundraised at Joslin Diabetes Center. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelors degree in sociology and early childhood education.

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    23 Comments

    1. Amanda Barras

      Sometimes would be more accurate than rarely, but it’ll do.

      4
      2 years ago Log in to Reply
      1. Megan S

        I thought the same. Sometimes it will be 5 mins or more but I wouldn’t call it rare. Just not as often as I bolus and then immediately start eating 😉

        2
        2 years ago Log in to Reply
    2. Jim Andrews

      It’s about the only way avoid after meal spikes.

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
      1. Dave Akers

        The other way to avoid those spikes is with insulin indicated to bolus at mealtime… inhaled

        2 years ago Log in to Reply
    3. Paul Hanson

      With inhaled insulin, there is not the need to pre-bolus, luckily.

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    4. Gary Taylor

      It actually somewhere between “rarely” and “almost always”. Probably 1/2 of the time.

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    5. Dave Akers

      No need to prebolus with inhaled insulin. I’m curious of those folks taking FIASP and Luymjev. Do they find they need to prebolus?

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
      1. ConnieT1D62

        When off pump and taking Fiasp or Lyumjev I bolus right before, during, or right after once I determine the carb content and release time of what I am eating.

        2 years ago Log in to Reply
    6. Sherolyn Newell

      I only pre-bolus when I’m splurging on something like cake. Sugary stuff hits me quick, normal food takes a while. If I pre-bolus, I go low waiting for the meal carbs to kick in.

      2
      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    7. Lawrence S.

      Same response as yesterday’s question. I almost always pre-bolus before meals, except when I forget, or when my blood glucose is very low.

      2
      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    8. Ernie Richmann

      Usually bolus 20 minutes or longer before eating unless I am already low.

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    9. KIMBERELY SMITH

      Almost all

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    10. Alyne Branson

      Need a “sometimes” as a choice. Between almost always and rarely. 😄

      2
      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    11. Pauline M Reynolds

      “Rarely” because frequently, my BG is below 100, at which time I wait a bit before bolusing.

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    12. Mike S

      As others commented, need a sometimes or depends option. Every food/day hits different. There is no one size fits all for T1 (no matter how hard the doctors try to tell us otherwise)

      1
      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    13. Carol Meares

      [A little less than almost always.] And, yet, I sometimes prebolus as much as 15-30 minutes with a faster acting insulin(Lyumjev).

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    14. Jen Farley

      I try to when I can, about 50/50. Did not see an option for half the time.

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    15. Clairemcdonnell4

      I do 10-15 minutes depending on the meal but if my bg is low or dropping I will do no prebolus

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    16. Mike Plante

      Depends on my glucose and trend and what I’m eating.

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    17. Bret Itskowitch

      I was going to say almost always, but not 5 minutes before. I take my insulin at the same time I eat.

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    18. Steven Gill

      On injections found it I dose 30-35 minutes before eating there’s a minimal glucose rise, and if there is it drops close to the original point more quickly (thus my 5.2 and 5.3 a1Cs). Ironically pumping I now dose 20-25 minutes or risk going low before eating (the Medtronic 780G controls the basal dose, great at preventing lows not as aggressive with highs but my a1C was 5.8 last time). The exception is if I plan on a fast acting or food high on the glycemic scale would try to dose maybe 45 minutes (milkshake or other sweetened treat!) or earlier but tough to plan on a treat and just wait I guess so I do enjoy in less time than plan to correct.
      (NOTE: found most physicians prescribe a higher basal dose so levels drop slowly between meals making the need to eat or snack on a schedule of some kind necessary. The relieves the need for such accurate meal dosing (that generic 50/50 thought for basal/bolus?) although I have a ratio about 25-30% basal and have gone 7-8 hours through the day not eating. My meal dose and timing is kind of important?

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    19. Joindy23

      I’m on MDI rather than a pump, so whether I pre-bolus depends on what my current glucose number is and whether it’s steady, going up or going down. If it’s low & steady (around 90), I don’t pre-bolus because if I did I would go into a hypo. It’s a constant balancing act.

      2 years ago Log in to Reply
    20. Tanya Wolfe

      About 50% of the time.

      2 years ago Log in to Reply

    How often do you pre-bolus at least 5 minutes before eating? Cancel reply

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