Seriously, I Just Wanted the Cool New Glasses.
My experience with rare disease — part one
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I’m one of those people who takes her health seriously enough that I go in when I don’t feel great. I go in for all of my annual stuff and try to keep annual dental work done. If I need a diagnostic service or labwork done, I shop for the best price. Then, I go. I go twice a year to the dentist when I have insurance. And believe me, when you are a freelancer, and your partner is a consultant — that’s iffy.
Insurance in the United States costs a lot, especially if it’s not tied to your working situation. When we had the kids at home and were traveling, our plan cost $1400 per month and then went up to $1600 per month. Once we no longer had to keep the kids insured, we started saving that money instead of paying an insurance company. Other than being obese, we were relatively healthy at the time. We were rarely sick, so we could afford to self-pay.
If you’ve worked in the healthcare industry, as I have, you know what to expect. In that case, particularly as an admin for accounts, accounts payable, patient assistance, or financial areas, you know how to work the system to your advantage. If you want to know more about that, let me know in the comments, and I’ll write an article or two or three about it!
Anyway, we’ve just come off several years of being self-pay. I thought I had been doing good. My health had deteriorated just a bit due to weight gain and high blood pressure (nothing major, I take a low dose med to help with this). However, when it came to my vision, I tended to go a bit more than a year for each exam. So long as my vision hadn’t noticeably changed, I figured it was alright to save on the expense of new glasses.
Turns out, skipping those eye exams to save money may not have been the best idea. Don’t do that.
I noticed that I was getting a lot of headaches this year. Since we moved closer to the coast, I assumed it was allergies. New landscape often brings new plants that bother me. Then, my astigmatism seemed to be getting worse. Come late summer, we got insurance through my partner’s new company. So, I began scheduling EVERYTHING! This included an appointment at the local Eye Care Center.
