baqsimi – Hugging the Cactus

I never thought I’d come to think of a nasal spray as a security blanket, or something that would provide me great ease of mind, but that’s exactly how I feel about my Baqsimi prescription.

I’m all stocked up on Baqsimi for the time being.

Baqsimi is a nasal glucagon that is a million times easier to use (or at least, understand how to use) in an emergency situation than those old red kits from the days of yore. In all my years of diabetes, I never could remember step-for-step what the process was like for using glucagon – in fact, I had an app downloaded on my phone just so I could practice it every so often as a refresher, but even with the app I felt ill-equipped to use glucagon on myself, or anyone else for that matter.

That’s why when I first heard about Baqsimi a few years ago, I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, there was an option out there besides glucagon! The freedom to have choice, rather than be forced to stick with something, goes a long way in life with diabetes…in life, period. I was excited that I could choose to keep Baqsimi on hand just in case I ever did experience a severe hypo, a possibility that has always frightened me, especially when I started living alone a year and a half ago.

And when I was recently taking inventory of my diabetes supplies, only to discover that my Baqsimi was expired, I made it a priority to get it refilled as soon as I could because of just how much I’d reaped the benefits of peace of mind. So I made a point of calling my doctor and asking for fresh prescriptions for both Baqsimi and insulin, because it just so happened that I was running low on my Humalog stash.

A couple days later, I went to the CVS drive-thru, picked up the prescriptions, and drove home. While driving, I couldn’t help but feel so grateful that it was actually easy for once to do something for me and my diabetes that was necessary and would provide me comfort. If only it could be like that every time.

Say hello to my new little friend…Baqsimi!

For anyone who may be unfamiliar with Baqsimi, it’s a relatively new form of glucagon that comes as a nasal spray. I haven’t had to use it yet (and I hope that I don’t ever have to, really), but there’s a lot of pros to Baqsimi when comparing it to a traditional glucagon kit:

It’s shelf-stable – it doesn’t have to be refrigerated.
It doesn’t expire until 2.5 years from now.
It’s completely ready to go as-is, no mixing or measuring needed.
It’s compact and totally portable.
It’s easy to use (and understand how to use!).

Baqsimi is incredibly easy to use: remove shrink wrap, insert into nostril, and push plunger all the way in to dose. That’s it!

All of those factors contributed to my decision to finally pull the trigger and ask my endocrinologist about writing a prescription for me. It’s not that I’m suddenly worried that I’ll need Baqsimi; for me, it’s more of a peace-of-mind situation. I always thought that my glucagon kit was next to impossible. Sure, I know how to use it, but I have to refresh my memory every so often because there are so many steps involved in the process: inject the syringe into the vial, mix the contents, wait for the glucagon to turn clear, stick the syringe back into the vial, withdraw the liquid, and then finally do the injection…there’s a lot going on there. And if I actually did need glucagon one day due to a severe hypo, I wouldn’t exactly be able to easily walk whoever I was with through the process because I’m sure I’d be totally incapable of doing so (depending on how bad my symptoms were).

It’s just a lot to ask of every single one of my family members and friends to know exactly how to inject glucagon into me in the event I ever needed one of them to do that, so having Baqsimi on hand takes so much of that fear and anxiety away.

And the icing on top of the cake is that it was super easy for me to get Baqsimi…like, it only took a few hours, which is amazing. All I did was reach out to my endocrinologist’s office using their online messaging system, ask my doctor for a script, and…bam. It was sent into my local pharmacy, and before long, I was cruising through the drive-thru with my dog to pick it up. I’m lucky, too, because all I had to pay was $25, thanks to my insurance (sometimes, it’s not as bad as I think it is).

Twenty-five bucks for peace of mind and a life-saving medication…that’s something I can get behind. I’m glad Baqsimi has finally joined my diabetes toolkit.