Search Message Boards » Retinitis Pigmentosa

Please login to post a response.

level 3 polar cataract?
Posted: 2008-04-02 23:03:54 By Nikki s
oh "YAWN"i tell ya i am so sick of going to the eye dr. i went back once again yesterday. as you might know i have been going like once a month cuz he allllways wants to see me back (money). i am still taking the diamox instead of 1000 mg i am taking 750mg. and i would assume the next time i go in he will put me on two then tell me to come back in another month then when i come back again he will put me on one then see me in another month..i tell ya what its draining the pocket book fast!!! so noooooooow he tells me well you have a polar cataract developing in your left eye. i asked him what level (thanx for that info darran:) and he told me it was a 3 and so i said well how do we know if the surgery would woek and he told me about the little thing that have that they can tell and blah blah blah and i told him lets just leave it alone for now cuz i really cant afford it.. so he starts looking through his paper work and before he said anything i said yes i have insurance but it doesnt cover everything and he just goes ohhh yeah... hahah whatever.. sooooooooooo now i dont know what to do cuz like i have said before my vision was better before i even started seeing this guy and letting him do these injections grrrr...so has anyone heard of polar cataract before? i mean he explained it to me but dang i dont know if i wanna mess with it!!!
sorry for the book:)

Re: level 3 polar cataract?
Posted: 2008-04-03 12:14:08 By Darran Z
I'm not sure what "polar" cataract means but if it is a 3, I would go ahead and get it out. They can do the PAM test and see what type of improvement you have. If I were you, I'd definately get it done, even if it seemed costly. Do a little research and go from there. You might want to seek a 2nd opinion about this.

But you are returning monthly because of the CME, nothing more, nothing less, because you have not had that addressed and are now just addressing it and he wants to be sure the treatment is working. It's not always about $$, even though you may think it is. If that is what you think, why go at all?

Darran

Re: Re: level 3 polar cataract?
Posted: 2008-04-03 15:26:37 By Nikki s
i understand it is about finding out if treatment is working but it is costing me a fortune and how am i gonna get a cataract removed if i dont have the money??? the payments to the eye dr. is getting quite costly i am on a payment plan with them and i have never been on payment plans before. also dang when does the tingling and all that ever go away when using this diamox? my feet go so numb it is painful and i have been sleeping on average 3 hours a day and not solid. i wake up from all the numbnes cuz it hurts. i dont know what to do...but yeah when i do get the money after i am done seeing this dr. for the cme then i will go into another dr. for the 2nd opinion but like i said i have other things i need to pay for first...house phone food etc.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: level 3 polar cataract?
Posted: 2008-04-03 16:48:36 By Darran Z
Pricing depends upon the plan you select. Go to the Medicare website and click on Plan Choices on the left. You s hould see a link for Medigap (Supplemental Insurance) Plans.

Darran

Re: Re: Re: Re: level 3 polar cataract?
Posted: 2008-04-14 17:54:57 By Natalie C
Out of curiosity, why wouldn't Medicare cover her visits to the doctor for something like this? Or for the cataracts for that matter?
Natalie

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: level 3 polar cataract?
Posted: 2008-04-14 18:07:35 By Darran Z
I'm not sure. But often Medicare only pays a certain percentage and the remaining out of pocket expenses are astronomical that it is cheaper to buy into a Medigap (pays for the "gap" inbetween costs Medicare doesn't cost and what a normal ins would pay) than to just rely in medicae. I know of no one who does not have a Medigap without Medicare (in otherwords, no one I know with medicare only).

Darran

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: level 3 polar cataract?
Posted: 2008-04-14 20:08:25 By Natalie C
What little I know about it comes from my grandmother and parents' experience. They all have supplemental plans to back up what Medicare doesn't cover. The problem comes when Medicare doesn't cover something at all, then the supplemental insurance doesn't cover it either! I've made the arguement that they should consider giving up the supplemental plans and take the roughly $250/mo they pay in premiums and put it in a savings account to cover future uncovered costs--considering my grandmother is in generally good health and her meds are covered under Medicare, it doesn't make sense to me to pay for additional coverage that rarely gets used. On a separate note, the new prescription care coverage plans have made it a real headache to navigate through the calculations to determine which plan is best for each person. My mother spent hours on the phone with a 'specialist' only to find out my mother's calculations were correct and the specialists weren't! I can't imagine my octagenarian grandmother trying to figure all that out on her own when she gets frustrated just balancing her checkbook.

Chapters