I just finished with the eye doctor. I thought my vision was deteriorating because of cataracts but they're still not ripe. It's macular degeneration due to old age and severe myopia. The doc told me I needed to go see the "retina people." Sounds like an eldritch race out of HG Wells.
My prescription is so much worse that I had to order new glasses. Luckily I get them online and they were just under $200 with tax and shipping. In a brick and mortar place they'd be over a thousand.
So I'm literally going blind but not bad enough to lose my driver's license yet apparently.
Speaking of driving, getting home after being dilated for the tests was hair-raising but I made it safely without hitting anybody or anything so that's something I guess. Good thing I know the way so I can practically autopilot it--I wouldn't have been able to read any street signs.
🅰️ ®️ ✝️ U
@ruemaleficent I feel a bit conflicted about laughing because of the topic, but "retina people" from HG Wells is a banger!
Wish you best of luck that you get a lot more milage out of those eyes!
@admitsWrongIfProven No worries, laughing was intended. It's the Scots gallows humor in my DNA.
I'd been having trouble with fine detail for a while, had to stop crocheting because I couldn't visually separate the stitches. Now I know why. Hopefully I'll be able to get this looked at before my insurance switches to a new plan January 1. This US health care system is a labyrinthian nightmare. The cruelty is the point.
@ruemaleficent Just saw someone i thought had a rather well payed job crack a joke about making an onlyfans for the dental work. From the outside, it is always surprising that it can get even worse over there.
@admitsWrongIfProven I was lucky to even have a Medicare advantage health plan next year. They're mostly closing down due to the budget cuts. There was only one in my area so I'm stuck with it, and I'm very lucky that my main doc (a specialist I've seen for over 30 years) is still on the plan.
Dental insurance is always extra, and it can be really expensive to add on so a good many people don't do it and neglect their dental care instead.
The state of our healthcare system is abysmal and you're right, it seems impossible that it can get worse yet somehow it still does.
But what can one expect from a country that worships capitalism like a god? Only profit matters.
@ruemaleficent Capitalism paved the way by taking ever more, fascism puts an axe into the smoking ruins... is "it cannot get worse" reached?
I'm not religious, but i always liked this saying:
God spoke: be happy and smile, for it could be worse.
And they were happy and smiled.
And it got worse.
@ruemaleficent I'd say the bottom is where humanity (or the people in one country, if you want to look per country) die. That's pretty final.
But until that happens, every step has potential to worsen things or it kills us.
Luckily, our lifespans are finite. So we either get spared from further suffering (if we all die), we get spared the worst of it (if we die before humanity does) or we see things improve. Logically, there's an upside to every possibility :-)
@admitsWrongIfProven Unfortunately living in this hell-state for as long as I have, I don't see much of a bright side. I hope I'm wrong though.
@ruemaleficent Well, i do hope that my bitterly cynical optimism has at least been a bit of a distraction, of the nice kind. Didn't mean to say something stupid with it, like "cheer up" or such.
@admitsWrongIfProven Oh, no worries, I didn't take what you said that way. I'm just a very Bitter Betty, don't mind me. lol
@ruemaleficent It's always nice to find someone who also appreciates bittersnark
@admitsWrongIfProven I don't think there's a bottom; we're in free fall into the abyss and the abyss is angry and famished.