Mom’s Eye Care Delayed

We’ve had to put a hold on Mom’s glaucoma care. The cheaper eye drops ($4.00 at WalMart) were doing nothing to help the eye pressure. Doc prescribed another medicine and when I called about it I found out the cost was $216.00!! Impossible for Mom to afford. I told Doc this--again--and he said he had no idea how much the drugs cost. They are not informed of that by the drug salespeople. Maybe if they were, they’d realize how ridiculous the drug companies prices are and help us to change things. ---Not!!

Mom threw her hands up in the air and said “Forget it! I’m not having anything done! I’ll just get through it on my own and deal with it when I go blind. When that time comes, you can lead me around by the hand.”

“Ummm no, Mom. I’ll put you in bed with a bell!” Well! She seemed to like that idea and I thought ‘oh no! She’ll drive me nuts with the bell.’ “That’s ok, Mom. I’ll lead you around by the hand.”

Sis and I finally talked her into signing up for the prescription plan through Medicare. It will cost her $26.00 per month and $5.00 per month for her eye drops--the good eye drops. Very affordable. She threw a fit saying she can’t afford that so Sis and I told her we will pay for it and she finally agreed. Her coverage will start the first of the year so we’ll go back to making appointments for her then. She will not have the surgery due to the fact her co-pay would be about $2,000 but at least she’s agreeing to have the eye drop therapy which will be for life. We haven’t even dealt with the subject of her cataracts yet. It was enough of a struggle to get the glaucoma stuff straightened out.

I feel bad for Mom. Her day revolves around doing word puzzle books and reading a lot of fiction books. If she loses her eyesight it will be seriously devastating to her. I think she would just curl up in bed and sleep until her day above comes along. I hope those eye drops do their job!

Goody Update: Goody has a new full name thanks to Nancy (friend and follower). Her name is now ‘Good and Plenty’ after the famous candy! It certainly fits her as she weighs in at 15 pounds!

She has adjusted to our daily routine so she’s up when we are up for the day then spends a good deal of the day outside. She is used to being out there and that’s fine since she stays by the house or in the yard. She does most of her ‘business’ outside which makes it nice for me. I only have to clean out her litter box about every other day. At night, she goes to bed with me and sleeps through the night. She keeps my feet warm. She is a joy and Mom really likes having her around so things are working out really well!