There’s no doubt about it. Pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies run the world. At least the world of medicine in the United States of America.

Without doing any research on the why of it, my guess is because Congress allows it, because Congress obviously doesn’t do anything about it. And why does Congress allow it and not do anything about it? There again, it’s a guess, but it would be my guess that pharmaceutical and insurance companies have an awful lot of very strong lobbyists and donate an awful lot of money to Congressional campaigns.

Eylea is a perfect example.

Described as a miracle drug, which it may well be, Eylea is a prescription liquid administered by an ophthalmologist into the eyes of persons with macular degeneration. That’s a disease that means blood vessels under your macula, the back part of your eye, have started to leak or bleed, blinding your vision and an ability to read books, make out facial features, watch TV or drive. It’s also used for a few other eye problems, including swelling in the retina caused by a blockage in the blood vessels, diabetic retinopathy, an eye disorder in diabetics that can lead to a fluid buildup in the retina, causing blindness.

In any case, the doctor, under local numbing, inserts a whopping 0.05 mL directly into the eye. That’s lot a couple of teardrops full of stuff. It’s generally a once a month treat, depending on the severity and success of the injection.

The good news is it’s highly effective, and ophthalmologists have seen results they didn’t expect to see in a million years.

The bad news is if you look at the bill, it costs $5,000 a shot. That’s one 0.05mL dose. That’s without any of the other costs associated with preparing you for the shot.

Multiply by that by say ten or 12 times a year, and you’ve got a dandy down payment on a house or the hope of being able to see faces again.

Insurance covers it you say, so why worry? Well, that’s only partially right. It depends on your insurance company, Medicare, plus a few other things. Some companies will cover a part of the cost, but only if you’ve tried the cheaper stuff first. Avastin, for instance, comes in around $50 to $100 a shot. Some insurers will cover it from the start, but only a portion of the total. Some will cover it only if Medicare covers some first.

I was lucky. Besides having a doctor who cared enough to check my coverage before hitting me with the shock of a terrible debt, all those years my husband was a railroad engineer with the PRR, later AMTRAK, all those nights I got up at 3 or 4 a.m. to get his breakfast and pack his lunch so he could make his two hour call to start the engine, are worth it all. His railroad brotherhood, or union, has a wonderful insurance policy. My Eylea was paid from the first very shot, whether I had tried Avastan or not. Pays the monthly bill in full. Plus all the related costs. Thanks, BLE.

Eylea knows their miracle cure is expensive. But rather than using their strong lobbies to convince Congress to fund more drugs, why don’t they simply cut the costs? If the drug is so effective, doctors will spread the word themselves. Cut out the advertising. Pour those dollars into that expensive research and cutting costs for the blind customer. He’s got enough problems without having to face exorbitant bills.

Eylea doesn’t do any of those things. Instead, it provides customers with plenty of facts, figures, and means to get someone else to pay the bill. They have their own EYLEA copay card program for one. You can get one of these if you live in this country, if your own insurance covers EYLEA and you have a copay, or if you have Medicare AND your own policy and still have a copay. If you visit their website, they will help you seek out and find lots of different foundations that might help you out. They’ll also hook you up with help if you don’t have any insurance at all that covers eye care. Doing all that close paperwork at a time when you can’t see very well probably takes your mind off the fact you can’t see very well.

Find out the cost of Eylea in other countries. Just north of us, on the same continent, it’s around $2,000 a shot. In Europe, it’s around $1,00. But here in the United States? $5,000 per shot is about the going norm. Is there something wrong with this picture? Can I not see it clearly enough because of AMD?

By the way, the drug is made in Tarrytown, New York.

Sardines are small but mighty, the American Macular Degeneration Foundation will tell you. With their omega 3 fatty acids and loads of vitamin D, they’re giants in the world of people who want to reduce the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration.

For a simple snack, try smearing cream cheese on a cracker and topping them with a sardine. Far a more filling luncheon, try this recipe for Sardine Sandwiches. You might find you like the little critter. It’s one of many unusual recipes you’ll find in the Foundation’s recipe book for better sight.

Toast 4 slices of whole grain bread, and spread two of the slices with whole grain Dijon mustard. Divide the sardines from one can evenly, layering them atop the mustard. Add 1 medium sliced tomato, two chopped scallions, and some freshly ground pepper. Spread the other two slices of bread with more mayonnaise, close them up and voila! Two Sardine Sandwiches fit for healthy eyes!

It doesn’t always have to be salmon and sardines, or avocado and grapefruit, The American Macular Degeneration Foundation’s recipe book has recipes for all of them, it’s true, but it’s also to filled with terrific dessert, juice and cooler recipes.

How about a Blueberry Smoothie? Really simple in a blender, and chock full of the Vitamin A and potassium these little blue delights are known for.

All you need is 1 cup of berries, 1 Cup of vanilla soy milk, ½ of a ripe banana and 1 tablespoon of flax oil! That’s it! Toss them all in a blender, puree for about a minute, chill a bit and enjoy a great cooling smoothie.

Even easier, if soymilk is hard to find, use plain old orange and grapefruit juice. Take 3 oranges and 1 grapefruit, preferably pink if you can get it, slice them all in half, use a hand juicer or reamer , stir, and simply pour into glasses. A delicious and cooling way on these hot summer days to get a lot of Vitamin C and folates, with few calories. The mixture makes about two cups!.

As I sliced celery stalks and green peppers into strips for snacks and placed them in a cup of water for easy access in the refrigerator, I laughed out loud and actually enjoyed the sound of my own merry self.

You’ve come a long way in nine months when you first found out you were going blind, I laughed.

And indeed, I have.

I remember nine months ago when the ophthalmologist first told me I had Aging Macular Degeneration and it had developed so fast and was so advanced that he did not think the injections he was proposing would do anything. Maybe, he said, he could halt any further damage, but he did not think he could make it any better.

I did not take the news very well. After all, the day before I called the doctor I was fine. It was when I thought the window in my bedroom was streaked with pelting rain the next morning and it was a sunshiny day, that I knew something was wrong. But even at that, I thought it was something temporary, maybe a cold in my eye, or a slight infection. I never though of AMD or it not being able to be cured.

So, I did what any octogenarian with a full life, a life dependent on reading, driving, traveling, being independent, working, writing and more, would do. I went ballistic!

I didn’t cry, I screamed. I didn’t sob, I yelled. I didn’t sit quietly and ponder what’s next, I ran around the house, screaming, crying, yelling, not believing, not comprehending. Not even thinking I’m not the only one. It was only after I did research that I learned AMD is the leading cause of blindness in people over 60. But I wasn’t thinking of that then. I was just thinking my life was changing forever and I would never be able to adapt to it.

It was the calming understanding of two of my children that made me come around. You can do this, they both said. You can handle anything. Remember that stroke you had ten years ago? Remember that breast cancer five years ago? You beat both of them, why not this, too? Learn more about it, like you always do.

So, I did. That’s when I realized I’m one of so, so many people with AMD, that’s when I became aware of people with so many other disabilities I had always recognized, contributed to for research and helped however I could. But I never fully comprehended what disabled people, regardless of the disability, suffered privately every day. So it did not take me long to get over feeling sorry for myself.

Strong in my faith, I turned to St. Lucy, the patron saint of the blind. I found prayers with devotions to her. I prayed them. Then months later, when those candles on the altar in church that had been crooked, or where I saw eight when there were really only four, and I was back to seeing four again, I thanked her. I thanked her for the part she played with modern medicine in helping me.

My research also made me pay more attention to my diet, something my children recognized before I did. So that recipe book from the American Macular Degeneration Foundation my daughter gave me, got me more intrigued with trying new recipes. My son from his out-of-state home had boxes of fresh vegetables sent to me. So I learned how to prepare kale and spinach in different, more appetizing ways. I roasted tomatoes and sauteed carrots and turnips in a spicy mix with ginger, peppers and garlic. I found I actually liked cauliflower and broccoli with new recipes to try. I learned that once again, even living alone after raising a family, cooking was really fun.

The new ideas in cooking led to other surprises. Without even trying, my weight went down, my blood pressure went down, my energy went up. Heck, I was feeling younger!

Who could believe a disease I thought was going to be the end of my life was actually the beginning of a brand new and exciting chapter?

It’s the season for peppers of all kinds, be they red, yellow or red. So why not mix them in a terrific quesadilla? The American Macular Degeneration Foundation’s great and diverse recipe book offers a great and really easy recipe that feeds four and is equally delicious with or without AMD. It’s full of Vitamin C, lots of carotenoids, and is as good for the skin and immune system as it is for the eyes.

Here goes, and thanks to the Foundation once again. Enough for four!

Add 1 cup each of chopped yellow, red and green or orange peppers to a T olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté about 10 minutes or until soft. Put in a bowl and mix in ½ Cup chopped scallions, ½ teaspoon of both cumin and sea salt, and ¼ teaspoon each of ground black pepper and cayenne or red pepper flakes, (more if you like things spicy, cut back if you like it more calming.) Next heat a skillet over medium hit, place 1 tortilla on it and top with ¼ cup of the mixture. Sprinkle all of that with ¼ cup grated cheddar cheese, top with a second tortilla and cook about 2 minutes each side, pressing down on the mixture and cooking until golden. Do the same thing with the remaining six tortillas, cut them all into wedges, and serve. Outstanding.

And if you want even more, serve them quesadillas with an apple celery juice that’s easy to whip up. Simply mix 4 chopped Granny Smith apples, with 8 McIntosh apples, chopped the same way, and toss in two chopped celery stalks. Put them all in a blender for a minute and strain. Simply enjoy. An apple a day does more than keep the doctor away. It also benefits those with AMG, and decreases risks from issues lie asthma and lung diseases. Want to make it truly special? Serve on ice with a shot of vodka!

It’s not that I’m enjoying aging macular degeneration (AMD) by any means, but it has made me reach out to try new foods and new recipes, all with the hope of preventing further eye damage. And since trying these new items and eating differently has shown me so many other healthy benefits, it’s gotten to be great fun in the kitchen once again.

For all those folks who are convinced they don’t like sardines, I’ve got another way to try them Just once. In the summer. How about getting them at the fish market and grilling them outside? Add a Grapefruit and Avocado Salad, and top it off with a Mango Sorbet and more than your eyes will say thank you!

Make the Mango Sorbet first, because it takes few hours in the freezer to get firm. It’s really easy with a food processor, particularly if you have some simple syrup in the refrig. If not, make the syrup: Combine equal parts water and sugar in a pan, stir to dissolve sugar and stir over heat bringing it to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Keep it in the refrigerator, it’ll keep for months.

OK, with syrup made, peel and chop 3 ripe mangoes and puree until smooth.

Add juice of a lime and 1 cup of simple syrup, pulse it a bit more. Put it all in a freezer container and freeze about six hours, until it sets and is firm. After dinner, scoop it into bowls, add a few blueberries for garnish, maybe a sprig of fresh mint, and voila! A feast truly for the eyes.

For the Grilled Sardines, figure two medium size fish, gutted from the market, for each person. To serve four, combine ¼ cup olive oil, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1 T. chopped parsley and about the same of chopped thyme, some sea salt if you think sardines need any more, and some black pepper. Let the sardines rest in that in a covered dish in the refrigerator for about an hour to marinade well. When you’re ready to eat, put the grill about medium high, and grill each of the little treats 3 to 4 minutes on each side, brushing a little bit with the marinade and making the flesh flaky and the skin crispy.

For the Avocado and Grapefruit Salad, peel 4 grapefruit (pink are best if you can get them, full of lycopene which is good in preventing cell damage and reducing inflammation) and cut each of the segments into pieces over a bowl, saving the juice. Slice about a dozen celery stalks into strips, then cut two avocados in half, remove the pit, scoop out the meat in a single piece from each half, and slice.

Heat ¼ teaspoon cumin in a dry skillet until fragrant (shaking the pan so it doesn’t burn), then add 2 teaspoons of olive oil and a teaspoon of honey. Take it off the heat, toss in some of that grapefruit juice you saved, mix and pour on the celery, fruit and avocado slices. Add a garnish if you think it needs something, I don’t. If you want to make this a couple of hours before serving, be sure to brush the avocado slices with some of the juice to prevent browning, cover with plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator.

Add juice of a lime and 1 cup of simple syrup, pulse it a bit more. Put it all in a freezer container and freeze about six hours, until it sets and is firm. After dinner, scoop it into bowls, add a few blueberries for garnish, maybe a sprig of fresh mint, and voila! A feast truly for the eyes.

The Aging Macular Degeneration which was so horrifying and frightening to me nine months ago has definitely turned into my AMD Culinary Expedition. Today, it’s Radish Leaves!

Stopping at our local Farmers Market during New Jersey’s season when nothing can beat our tomatoes or blueberries, I was also attracted to some really big radishes on the farmers’ stand. There were about ten in the bunch and of course their leaves were still attached. At home, after I snipped the bottoms and the tops attached to the leaves, so I could put the spicy red and white roots in water in the refrigerator, I wondered why I had to throw out that two cups or so of delightful looking green on top? Does anybody eat radish greens, I wondered? And could they be any good for you? So searching I went.

Much to my delight, I found one more miracle of nature that’s especially good for the eyes. In fact, I learned that the radish greens are even more nutritional than the roots, the red and white things we’ve been eating forever. Seems the leaves are chock full of vitamins A, C, and K, as well as containing very generous supplies of iron, calcium and protein.

Armed with this new knowledge, I decided it was time to experiment. I thought of radish leaves as kale or cabbage, something a bit spicier than lettuce. Duly scrubbed and chopped, why not toss a bit in with my salad? When that went well, I tried adding some more and discovered the peppery taste was great, so long as I put less fresh pepper on the finished product.

Then I wondered about sautéing some leaves, but knowing while I like spinach, I like to add walnuts and feta to a sauté, I thought up something for the leaves. Why not slice some radishes and sauté them right along with it for a tangy mix. So I tried

Radish and Leaves Salad

1 bunch of radishes, washed, cut from leaves, sliced thin

1 T. olive oil

½ teaspoon thyme and 1 t. minced garlic

Sauté the radishes in the olive oil about 2 minutes, until soft; add thyme and garlic and sauté another 6 minutes or so.

Once radishes are soft, wash and chop all the leaves from the bunch (Strangely enough, it comes out about equal, about 2 Cups chopped red roots and 2 Cups chopped green leaves all come from a single bunch you buy)

Sauté leaves along with the radishes, adding a slight bit more olive oil if necessary, for another minute or two.

Serve as a unique and very pretty side dish.

Next time, I’m going to drop some chopped leaves in my already-made soup. If it comes out as good as I think it will, then Radish Leaf Soup will be on my cooking agenda.

Then, looking for another way to prepare the avocado I’m also certainly enjoying as a new vegetable on menus, again, only since learning how beneficial they are for the eyes, I happened on a recipe for Radish Leaves and Avocado Quiche! Another treasure. And with all the calories you’re saving by eating all these veggies, you can splurge on quiche shells from the market freezer and skip the work. Using the mini shells is fun and they make every very attractive hors d’ouerves or, with several together, a great breakfast dish.

1 package 12-15) mini quiche shells

1 Bunch radish leaves, washed, towel dried and chopped

1 Shallot or half an onion, diced,

1/2 tsp mustard

1 Avocado, dicing meat with few drops of lemon juice to keep from browning

1 egg

2Tbls. Sharp grated cheese Pecorino is good)

6 radishes, thinly sliced

Salt and Pepper if you must, not for me.

Heat over to 350 degrees. Preheat skillet and sauté shallot/onion and butter 1 minute

Increase heat, add leaves sauté for 30 seconds and drain any juice. Set aside to cool slightly.

Puree avocado and leaves, mix well with egg, cheese, mustard, milk/cream, salt and pepper. Spoon the filling into the shells, arrange radish slices on top, dot with butter cubes. Bake until the top slightly firm to touch, about 20 minutes.

Garnish with tomato bit, blueberry or both and serve warm

It’s because I have an ophthalmologist who has such a positive outlook on what he is doing for my macular degeneration, or perhaps it’s because I don’t want to disappoint him in his belief in my continuing eye health But I have completely changed my diet and now think that I too am contributing towards not only living with AMD but helping it from becoming worse.

Once I tried radish leaves in salads and started talking about it to friends, I learned others, with and without AMD, who have tried leaves of other root vegetables.

One friend gave me a recipe for eggplant that makes this purple vegetable that is so great for eye health, simply delicious even if you think you don’t like eggplant!

She also prepares her beet leaves like spinach, washing the leaves well, slicing them a bit, then sauteing them in olive oil until soft. I tried it with feta cheese mixed in, she added cranberries to hers. Both are great treats.

Beet leaves, like beets themselves, are full of fiber, great for glaucoma because they lower intraocular eye pressure, and cranberries are loaded with vitamins A and C and we already know they’re great. Both are also good in combating cataracts.

Now try this: Eggplant Bacon. Don’t make those faces, read the recipe first, try it once, You’ll end up smiling!

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment.

Cut 1 medium sized eggplant into quarters, Slice each quarter into long, thin strips. (A mandolin is perfect, even a vegetable peeler will work. It’s thin slices you really want to achieve.) Place strips on sheets.

In a bowl, mix Tbsp. olive oil, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp maple syrup, ½ t. paprika., Brush on both sides of the eggplant strips. Season with freshly ground pepper to your taste.

Bake about 45 minutes, or until strips get to the crispiness you like in bacon. (Mine is great at about 50 minutes.)

Eggplant is extremely great for eyesight. It’s a purple vegetable which means lot of lutein, an antioxidant, always a good thing. It has one of the two carotenoids which protect the color pigments of your eyes, and they’re the filters that protect them, so it’s all a pretty darn good thing, even worth developing a taste for eggplant…just once anyway!

I’m not a great cook since I became a widow 15 years ago and ended my cooking with a loved one that added so much to any lunch or dinner. But I’ve developed some great short cuts I really like.

For instance, if I don’t want to cook beets, or can’t get them out of season, I simply buy canned beets, drain and wash them. I save the juice from jars of pickles, and when the pickles are gone, simply dump the beets, either whole or sliced, into the pickle juice, refrigerate, and voila! Within a week, I have pickled beets! And yes, they get better the longer they sit!

While I am having so much fun trying all these new vegetables and ways to prepare them, I’m causing a bit of good-natured consternation with my daughter, who, of course, never saw any of this action at home when she was growing up. Her question these days, with artificial laughter and inquiry? “Who is this woman, and what have you done with my mother?” But, like my son, she’s thrilled with the change!

Found another great recipe that makes a great cooling dinner salad and is loaded with Vitamin A, calcium and just plain goodness.

Taking advantage of fruits and vegetables in season has so many benefits we don’t even realize. I found going to farmers’ markets has not only been fun but relaxing. Stopping to talk to the farmers and learning more about the fruits and vegetables they grow has been educational. Living in New Jersey, I’ve gotten an entirely new respect for why we are called the Garden State.

Mangos have never been a popular fruit in our home, probably because they’ve never been plentiful. Now however, I find them in markets and grocery stores in all sizes and shapes, and they are wonderful for eye health.

Cheeses of all kinds are a great source of calcium and lots of other vitamins and minerals, so you can’t ever go wrong with cheese….except for the cholesterol and fat levels, and for that, it’s usually still okay so long as it’s cheese in moderation. Blending it with other healthy foods kinds of stretches it and makes it easier to continue to get all those vitamins while watching out for fats. If you’re not a meat eater, cheese is also a great protein source.

So blending the two, mangos and feta cheese in a salad goes like this:

Mango and Feta Salad

Whisk together: 2 tsps. Balsamic vinegar and 1 Tbls. Olive oil in a large bowl.

Add 1 c sliced onion (I like red onion in this!) ,

2 Cups mango,

1 cup avocado,

1 cup cucumber,

a Cup tomato, each cut into bite size pieces, and

1/c cup radishes, sliced.

Toss them all together and you’re done!

Lay some lettuce leaves on each of two plates, spoon the salad on top, and top with ½ Cup cubed feta.

That’s all there is to it!

Perhaps if you want some starch, serve it with dinner rolls or pita bread;

if still think you’re not getting enough great health for your eyes, mix in 1/3 cup cranberries, or sprinkle with chopped walnuts!

This makes two very large servings! And it’s so low in calories you can add on carrot cake for dessert!

I just had the ninth injection in my right eye to help save my sight from aging macular degeneration and once again I realize how very fortunate I am and how skilled and understanding my ophthalmologist is.

I was diagnosed in December with wet AMD which had occurred literally overnight. That concerned me, but did not completely frighten, certainly not enough to demand, as I should have, an immediate appointment with an eye specialist. It was Covid time and appointments with any physicians were difficult to come by.

When I did get an appointment and was immediately directed to the doctor who specializes in AMD, he told me at my first appointment it was so severe he had no hope of doing much with it. I smiled and prayed when he said he would try to halt it from getting any worse and completely blinding me. But, he cautioned right from the beginning, that was all he thought he could do. Nevertheless, he definitely recommended I proceed with the injections. He also told me to start taking AREDS 2, an OTC capsule recommended for twice a day.

I left his office confused, a bit frightened, rather angry, but grateful I had a doctor who was honest and upfront.

I was confused and angry because nobody, in spite of regular visits to eye doctors, had ever said to take AREDs. Why? I wondered? It’s not really expensive, easy to get and didn’t seem to an easy medicine to take with few side effects, if any. Later research showed me AREDS is great for counteracting all AMD, wet and dry, the leading cause of blindness in people over 65. Wouldn’t you think my general practitioner, or certainly the eye doctor I saw regularly, would have the same information it took me five minutes to find on a computer. Wouldn’t you think some medical professional would have suggested I start taking it long before I was ever diagnosed with a sudden loss of vision overnight at age 84?

I was frightened because this doctor I was seeing for the first time told me he didn’t hold out much hope for improvement or even much stability. It was a sizeable degeneration.

But then gratitude overwhelmed the other feelings. I had a doctor who was honest, upfront, direct, did not believe in false promises, or false hope. I had researched his background as well and found his overwhelming educational and experience history superb, and his nearly four decades of specializing highly regarded and full of acclaim.

During our once a month visits, the doctor and I talked little other than exchanging pleasantries as he inspected my eyes, cleansed then, numbed my right eye, left the room while waiting for it to work, inserted needles, completed the procedure, and I was on my way to make my next appointment for the following month.

But he always answered all my questions. As a newspaper reporter, I always had some. He did not talk in highly professional terms or use all the proper words; rather, he talked at my level, gave examples of what he meant, then watched to see if I was comprehending.

And I learned more about him. I learned he is in medicine because he feels a strong need within himself to help others. “Isn’t it good to be able to help someone?” he asked me with a slight smile one day. I thought it was very humbling when he added, “I think that’s pretty much why all doctors go into medicine.” I learned he is conscientious and reviews every record carefully. I learned that in addition to the office in Holmdel, NJ where I see him, he sees patients in lots of other offices in the tri-state area. He is licensed to practice in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut where he lives.

I saw his happiness every month when, contrary to all expectations, I began to show slight improvement. After six injections of Avastin, he told me he was thinking of trying Eylea for the seventh. It was almost like he was asking me if that would be okay with me. I was grateful he was giving me advance notice and was thinking ahead.

But my very favorite visit was when I had my eighth injection, the second with Eylea. My AMD had improved so much he was visibly stunned and re-checked and re-checked the screen before he shared the news with me. “I didn’t think in a million years I would ever see this,” he said. For a doctor who is always so well composed, so sure of himself, so confident in his ability and the power of medicine, and so calming, it came as a shock when I thanked him for the visit and he said, “ When I’m driving home on the thruway tonight, I’ll be smiling the whole way. And that’s because I’ll be thinking of you and what I saw happen today.” I am awed by a doctor who can take so much pleasure and happiness from seeing someone he doesn’t even know be well on the road to better vision when eight months earlier it didn’t seem possible at all.

So yes, I might not be grateful for AMD, but I am grateful for a doctor who truly cares, a doctor who wanted to proceed even when he didn’t think he could improve vision, but hoped he could prevent it from getting any worse. A doctor who could smile his way all the way from New Jersey to Connecticut because he had given an 84 year old woman literally a new look on life.

My doctor is Dr. Paul Guerriero, a board-certified Ophthalmic Surgeon specializing in Retina and Vitreous diseases and Uveitis. A doctor who earned his medical degree from Downstate Medical Center, completed has extensive clinical and surgical experience and residency in ophthalmology with the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, was only a third year resident when he won the prestigious Louis Girard Award reserved for a graduating senior who has made a significant contribution to ophthalmic research, did more training in the field of retina in Atlanta, Georgia, all before he started his own practice….not in one city or state, but the tri-state area. He is one of a fleet of doctors and physicians with Atlantic Eye in Monmouth County, New Jersey.