Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation • Hacker News Board

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#201

Post by vidarh » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 8:29 AM UTC

sjducb wrote: post #198

vidarh wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it weird to realise CPAP machines requires prescriptions some places. In the UK you can just order one next delivery from Amazon.

CPAP machines require a prescription in the UK. https://www.hope2sleep.co.uk/cpap-machines-sleep-apnoea.html Amazon is breaking the law by shipping one to you. I suspect there is very little enforcement of this law, which is why Amazon is unknowingly breaking it.

I can't find anything to support the claim that they require a prescription from any authoritative source. The page you reference cites guidelines from an association that has no legal power. The relevant Act seems to only define a prescription regime for medication, and to only specify category classifications for medical devices for the purpose of certification, not restrictions on purchase. But I'm not a lawyer.

Which law is it you think Amazon would be breaking?

EDIT: In fact the page you linked itself points out that the "prescription" they are talking about is in fact not a prescription. "When the word 'prescription' is used for the purchase or rental of a CPAP machine, this is not like a standard prescription which GP's provide for medication."

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#202

Post by gmac » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 3:12 PM UTC

1234letshaveatw wrote: post #191

UomoNeroNero wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

P.S. As a European, I genuinely struggle to understand how you cope with your healthcare situation. In France, in a small mountain village, I walked into a pharmacy and, through a combination of gestures and sketches, managed to buy a box of rapid-acting insulin at full price (around €30–40). The insulin was clearly available. The issue was purely bureaucratic — technically I needed a prescription from a French docto…

As an American, I am astounded at the the smug ignorance I see from Europeans online. I don't envy that cultural lack of self awareness

Are you trying to claim that American private healthcare is anything other than a giant shitshow of inefficiency, profiteering and death?

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#203

Post by Projectiboga » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 5:43 PM UTC

s1artibartfast wrote: post #133

UomoNeroNero wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, and one more thing. I always keep a blood glucose meter in my backpack. You know, that medieval-age stuff with the finger-pricker and test strips. (You can buy one for about €10 in pretty much any pharmacy in Europe, but it’s better to already have one with you.) And pen needles, too.

Re access: You can also walk into any pharmacy or walmart in the US and by rapid acting insulin for about $20. no doctor, no insurance, and no Rx necessary (unlike France). Also, they had a massive supply of insulin. If they bothered, they could have bought some needles and looked up the conversion.

Regular Human Insulin isn't "rapid acting" it isn't delayed released like NPH, which lasts almost 30 hours, but it isn't "rapid". Yes getting R & NPH can keep you alive but it creates a caloric and glycemic burden as those types of insulin stoke the stove without enough glucose to run it. Some remote place in Greece might only have the pharmacy open M-F business hours like 8-4, we living in built up urban or suburban USA might not realize that other countries may not have pharmacies open late or over the weekend like here.

As to $20, their website says

"ReliOn™ NovoLog® insulin Rapid-acting mealtime insulin, starting at $73." on a block without any link to go further. This is rapid-acting but it is buried on the site to access any clear information about is that the stuff that can be accessed without a script.