You may believe you are insured, yet are you really?

Recently viewed a documentary dealing with long-term disability including other insurance plans offered by most private companies.

It was interesting to hear according to this that the vast majority up to an estimated two thirds of persons on these programs were not actually covered.

It has to do with a "pre-existing condition" a clause which exists in almost every if not all insurance policies.   In a nutshell it means, if you had the condition before the policy was enacted you would be disqualified due to your pre-existing condition.

Today many companies regularly change insurance carriers signing up new ones usually based on cost, benefits etc.

As with all companies the bottom line rules and in many cases if not all of them the change is due to the almighty buck.

It may be something you wish to verify with the company you work for whether or not you have coverage for a pre-existing condition, especially if you have recently changed insurance carriers.

Hopefully I am wrong, yet it is worth investigating.

More on insurance to follow!

My lazy boy thanks to Junior.

It's been so long since I've written I had to look at my blog and see where I had left off which isn't a bad thing when you have MS it just means that I had the opportunity to leave it behind for a while.

I had the opportunity of using "Junior" not due to a fall rather I wanted to try it to transfer safely into my lazy boy recliner. We hadn't used it before and took our time making certain the straps were well positioned. I must say the unit worked extremely well, it lifted me without a problem and Denise had no difficulty in turning it and positioning it so that I would be deposited safely on my recliner.

Although it may sound trivial I had been looking forward to this moment for quite some time. Having given up trying to transfer because I was so afraid of falling this was a long time overdue. I remember feeling comfortable and then and then lights out. What seemed like a moment turned into several hours of sleep. It was absolutely fantastic and I plan on doing it again in the near future.

It is a tool that provides me with more confidence knowing that should I end up on the floor is a simple matter for my spouse to get me up off the floor back into the chair.

An expensive device for certain yet one worth every penny.

Meet Junior

What I have is primary progressive multiple sclerosis.  Having never experienced a relapse it is impossible for me to relate to relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis.  Even secondary progressive multiple sclerosis is different. 

Unlike what some scientists believe the different variations of the disease are at least according to me simple variations,  inconsequential in the long term.

It appears for the most part the disease is nondiscriminatory in it's outcome.  We can predict with near pinpoint accuracy the eventual outcome for 97% of persons afflicted with this disease.  This in part thanks to statistical medicine which is nothing more than vasts amounts of data representing thousands of patient years. 
This made possible given our current computer/database resources monitoring hundreds of thousands of patients with the same condition.

We end up with a fairly acurate prognosis.

Turns out it's a blueprint in essence one which spells out when the disease will progress, how long it will take to progress and finally the patient's condition based on the progression.

That is why we have scales such as the Expanded Disability Scale to map, measure, keep track of this vast amount of data collected from MS clinics around the world.

If you disagree that's okay there is nothing absolutely nothing wrong with trying to overcome the symptoms affecting you. 

Unfortunately with primary progressive MS there is nothing the doctors can provide to slow the progression not stop it but at least slow it down. In my opinion no matter how slow it  progresses it always seems too fast.

Yesterday I mentioned I had received a new piece of equipment.  This device will facilitate our lives making it easier to remain

independent not having to rely on others when assistance is required while ensuring my spouse will not be injured in the process.

It is a piece of equipment I would associate with someone in their 70s or 80s certainly not for someone in their 50s but then this is multiple sclerosis there are no exclusions there is no rationale so if you must utilize something you would only see used in a long-term care facility then so be it you either learn to accept it or you go into denial.  I've been in denial for too long have taken too many falls and have waited hours for help.  I've gotten help from neighbors and my spouse in order to lift me when I do fall.

It is also inevitable that I will fall again however this time things should be easier.

Meet Junior!

With a name like Junior you wouldn't expect it to set us back $3000 however it did, there goes this year's RRSP contributions.

Mind you with today's market it should be no problem for me to rise above the TSX or Dow Jones in this contraption.

Besides I remember one of my previous employers HR department wondering why I would need to worry about retirement I was on long-term disability?                                      Makes plenty of sense to me doesn't it?