Back in December, I was diagnosed with dry eye. My eye doctor put me on Restasis eye drops. Spendy little buggers. And I’m on ‘em for the rest of my life basically … unless I want to go back to having dry eyes and not being able to wear contacts.

Luckily I have health insurance. I was without for 3 months after I switched jobs at the beginning of this year. Well, I wish I could go back to my old insurance company. The eye drops cost over $100 (I thought they were close to $120 … that’s what I was told when I called around to different pharmacies to figure out which one to go to, but it appears that they’re just under $110. Either way … they’re still EXPENSIVE!!!). With my old insurance company, I paid only $30 and my insurance paid $71.40. With my new insurance, I pay $61.97 while insurance pays only $46.97. WTF?!?!

The prescription is supposed to last about a month. There are 32 vials in the box, and you’re supposed to use each vial only once (actually … if I used the drops like that, the box wouldn’t even last a month since I’m supposed to use ‘em twice a day). My eye doctor told me it was okay to use a single vial for 2 days. So I can stretch a single prescription out for 2 months rather than 1.

Thank goodness my paychecks are bigger with this new job. Otherwise these drops would stretch me thin. I don’t think there’s a generic brand. I wish there was. I guess I shouldn’t complain. At least I have insurance. But do these drops really have to be so damn expensive? And why does my new insurance company have to be so damn cheap? That makes me leery to go in for a checkup. I really need to though. I can’t remember the last time I saw a doctor (who wasn’t an eye doctor). But if my insurance company is so cheap with this prescription, how are they gonna be with office visits and lab work and any sort of prescription I might end up having to go on?

Getting that prescription refilled sure did ruin my day. I’m glad I didn’t do it earlier in the day.

I finally decided to just pick a new eye doctor and make an appointment. I really didn’t like my last one. He just didn’t seem helpful or that he cared. And I could only go on Friday’s, and it would have to be during work time. Not convenient.

I decided to go to Sterling Optical because they are only a couple blocks from my apartment. It took less than 2 minutes to drive there. THAT’S convenient. And I could go in on Saturdays. Even better.

I had my appointment this morning. And my suspicions were correct. I have chronic dry eye and allergies (I already knew about the allergies). That’s why I can’t wear contacts and that’s why my eyes are so damn dry in the mornings. And I liked this doctor. He seemed concerned about how dry my eyes were. When I mentioned dry eyes to the old one, he just shrugged it off. Definitely a good choice going to the new one. The only bad thing … he prescribed Restatis eye drops for me. That’s not the bad part. The bad part is that one box of those puppies costs around $120!!! Damn. And I’m going to be without insurance for 2 months during the transition from one company to the other for work. AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! The doctor suggested getting a couple of boxes, but I think my insurance company will only cover a month’s supply. CRAP!!! There goes more money from my computer fund. But I have to get these. I’m sick of the dry eyes. And he said dry eyes could lead to infection. Don’t want that.

Hopefully these drops will help. And maybe I’ll even be able to get back into contacts eventually. If not, I’ll at least get some new glasses. I guess my current prescription is too strong, according to the doctor. But it could be because I had gotten them right after the other issues I had (last year I had corneal distortion … yikes).

The other bad thing … I’ll probably be using these eye drops for the rest of my life. Great. I’d better always have insurance. Otherwise, it’ll get really expensive.

Every year when we start getting close to spring, I tell myself that I’m going to start going on walks to try to lose weight. And every year I come up with excuses …
It’s too windy.
It’s too hot.
It’s too cold.
It’s raining.
I don’t have time.

Well … I no longer have an excuse to exercise. I bought this yesterday and it was delivered today …

I had been planning on getting an elliptical at Walmart. It was the cheapest one I could find. But I stopped at Scheels yesterday and found the one I ended up getting. I couldn’t believe the sign. $99.99! And the regular price for it was $499.99. I guess they needed to get rid of what they had in stock. Man … if I didn’t luck out.

My plan is to start slow. I haven’t exercised in way too long. And I am SO out of shape. So I’m going to start with 10 minutes in the morning before work on the lowest resistance. Once I’m sure I can tolerate that, I’ll go up to 10 minutes and then up to 30 minutes. After that, I’ll start increasing the resistance. I don’t wanna kill myself by going all gung-ho at the start.

I’m hoping to see some results by the end of the summer. It would be nice to see some sooner, but like I said, I don’t wanna kill myself. I basically wanna feel better and fit into a smaller size jeans …

I actually wore my contacts to work today. That’s a pretty big deal. I’ve been having troubles with my eyes for probably close to a year now. First, my corneas were distorted. That got better and I could wear my contacts again for a couple months. Then my eyes started bothering me again. And they’ve been extremely dry at times … mostly during the nite. I’ve been waking up several times a nite for the past few months because of the dryness. But lately, it hasn’t been so bad. I almost didn’t have to put my eye drops in this morning.

I was able to wear my contacts last weekend. But I wasn’t on the computer much. I thought I would try today anyways. I didn’t make it the entire day, but I did make it until 2 - 2:30. That’s pretty good. And it was so nice not to have my glasses on.

I might try to wear them again tomorrow. It all depends on how my eyes are in the morning. I’m hoping this is a sign that I can get back to wearing my contacts all the time.

I didn’t make any grand resolutions this year. I never end up keeping any of them. Who does? Someone with more tenacity that me … LOL.

But I AM taking steps to improve myself … body, mind, and spirit. Nothing big … ‘cuz I’d be liable to go back 2 steps for he 1 big one forward. I figured that if I start with little things, then I’ll keep at it and add more little things as the year goes on.

I started by eating at my kitchen table. Now, that might not sound like a change, but for me it is. I have been eating at my coffee table in front of the tv. Yeah … I can still see the tv from the kitchen table (it’s a small apartment … LOL), but I need something to keep me occupied. :G-grin:

Keeping in the ‘eating’ realm of things … I’ve started drinking chocolate milk with meals at home instead of pop. I definitely need more calcium in my diet. I am taking calcium pills, and I do eat a lot of cheese, but that’s not enough. And I know I wouldn’t drink regular milk. So I went with chocolate.

I still have PLENTY to work on. Regarding my diet … I need to work on portion control and not drinking so much pop and just generally eating healthier. And I need to start exercising too.

And I have other stuff to work on too … stuff dealing with self-esteem and self-image and that sort of stuff. That’s the stuff that’ll be harder than the stuff dealing with my diet. But … at least I have started somewhere.