The cost of being a loner

[Buckeye_Democrat]

20. I'm sorry.

I'm a loner in my 40's and foresee myself in the same condition for years to come.

I was briefly married to a woman in my 20's who was an alcoholic and, as I later found out long after the divorce, addicted to cocaine. It's a long story about her essentially trying to wreck my life. I put up with it far longer than I should have because of my strong sense of commitment, but I'll spare you the very lengthy details which are probably sufficient for a short novel. If you ever saw "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," the personalities of the two main characters matched the personalities of me and her pretty well. However, what I endured was worse.

Other events happened after that marriage that affected my ability to trust people, but the marriage and divorce ultimately started me on my path to being a loner.

I started losing my eyesight in my 30's. I have an extremely rare genetic condition that causes early-onset macular degeneration. I lost the vision in one eye and waited for it to happen to the other. A couple years later, the other eye caused visual distortions which was a sign that I'd lose my eyesight on that side as well.

Fortunately, by that time, an experimental drug was available to treat it. I started getting injections of that drug into the eye and it worked! My eye doctor says that I'll eventually go blind in that eye too from the "dry form" of the retinal problem, but the drug would slow down the vision loss from the "wet form."

Anyway, I've also dealt with travel difficulties over my eyeball injections. The eye doctor has refused to allow me to leave his office a few times unless I had someone to drive me home, and it wasn't easy to find help. My parents were in their 40's when I was born, and they're both deceased now. Older siblings are either gone or they suffered the same blindness when they were younger. I'm currently a regular driver for my oldest brother who is blind, but I don't have younger siblings to help me in a similar way if I need surgery or other medical care.

My brother was on Medicaid before he turned 65, and his insurance offered free travel to and from doctor visits if necessary. He tried it a couple times for morning appointments (while I was at work), and it wasn't bad. He was forced onto Medicare at 65, and I don't yet know if such services are still provided under that plan.

Have you contacted your insurance provider to find out if such travel options are provided by them?