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Right now, as I write this, I am going over all the information I can about getting a double lung transplant. I have an all day appointment at the Cleveland Clinic to de re-evaluated for the transplant program coming up in alittle over a month.
That's where things are now.
A little background. Back in late 2000, after seeing my health deteriorate significantly due to what the doctor called severe asthma, I was diagnosed with a now rare disease called Bronchectisis. It's literally a deterioration of the lung caused by an untreated lung infection I had decades ago. Smoking hard for ten years didn't help much and being in a fire in which I ended up in the hospital with smoke inhalation issues just complicates the issue even more.
I just turned 52 a few months back.
As soon as I applied for SSI, I was granted. No questions asked. My doctor doted all the i's and crossed all the right t's so that by the middle of 2002, I received a lump sum payment from social security.
In 2004, I had a severe infection that developed into ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) and was in the hospital for over a month. The good news was I missed all the fawning over Ronnie when he kicked it in early summer of '04. The bad news was I did a whole lot of damage to my already at risk lungs and was first tested to see if I would qualify for a lung transplant. I was on the list but I was able to regain some of the lost lung function in order to be taken of the list.
I do a few tax returns to bring in some money but mostly I can't work for any schedule since I am chronically ill, tired all the time and susceptible to nasty lung infections. A few of you might remember that I was in the hospital back in late October and early November. That trip caused my pulmonary guy to suggest I get reevaluated.
Now remember, I have not worked for more than eight years now, just hanging on to clients who are cool with me breaking appointments now and then.
So now I find out that I might be better off in the long run if I was to jump over to medicare as my primary insurance as they would pay a lot of the anti-rejection meds that will set me back about $4k a month.
This is because it seems to me that Medicare won't pay for the drugs unless they pay for the transplant.
Well here is where the story takes a weird turn. Since I am only 52, I will only be eligible for Medicare and SSI for three years after my transplant. So I would be going back into the work force at say age 57 or 58 with a very large pre existing condition looming over me like a do not hire this man sign.
So I am damned if I do and damned if I don't.
I just might be better off waiting for a while to get on the list so that I can really check out the options.
Any way, I was hoping that HCR would kind of close these kind of things down and allow me to ease back into the workforce. I think that is all just about out the window now that Cosmo boy had been elected to the Senate.
I really hope they at least change the rules about pre-existing conditions and lift the life time caps. But I doubt if that will happen now.
Here is the rub. It might be better for me to get a divorce and go with medicare as my primary.
Well, there you have it, a long screed that just throws out a lot of stuff that is at least tangentially connected to HCR. I at least have a few options on the table. That's more than I can say for a whole lot of people in this county.
But hey, the Death Panels and Obamacare scared enough people that I think so now there are bound to be a whole lot more people in my situation.
Nothing left to say but peace out.
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