Regarding Lou, funds, and the revelation that he has a continuous glucose monitor (or has one prescribed to him, anyway):
There's a big grey market for glucose test strips, so much so that there are multiple resellers who ship nationally. Everyone's probably seen those "We Buy Diabetic Test Strips" bandit signs (short and interesting
New York Times article, archived ). Many of the same established brokers are moving out into CGM and insulin pump supplies, albeit those are sometimes sold less officially via bigger marketplaces like Amazon or eBay.
(Not a lawyer, so I'm not certain if it's the higher cost-per item or the fact that they're sterile and insertable that makes sensors/pump cannula listings get shut down more readily.)
How the flow works is that less-serious diabetics generally test their blood glucose infrequently, much less than what the standard of practice prescribes them in strips-per-month. On the other hand, brittle diabetics (or ones who are ill, or who are a bit neurotic, or who are even just Type I) test way more than the insurance companies think they ever should. Strips are sold over the counter, but they're even more expensive.
(By "less-serious diabetics," I mean "less serious about being diabetic;" a lot of people out there are getting boxes of test strips shipped to them every three months, putting them in a pile in the corner, and going about their lives with a trail of purulence and fewer and fewer toes.)
This is exactly the kind of issue Lou would be posting about if he truly cared, and if he could generate thoughts on his own: the intersection of diabetes management, capitalism, and the US healthcare system.
As it stands,
Lou may figure out that if he doesn't have the ~spoons~ to insert those pesky sensors that he's getting for a song, it's incredibly easy to
flip them for cash that could buy vidya. (
archive)