Losing ability to drive
What do you do when you live rural, have no local extended family or close friends, can’t move elsewhere, and are losing the ability to drive due to chronic illness???
I have developed, over the last couple of years, a problem where my brain has what almost seem like narcoleptic episodes (though I don’t have narcolepsy, at least no diagnosis) when I’m driving. It’s not all the time, but it’s gotten frequent enough that I truly don’t feel safe driving anything longer and 15 minutes or so from home. I have a wife and 2 young kids. My wife is the sole provider financially now because I lost my job. The doctors I have mentioned this to have not only not seemed to take it seriously but have been clueless. I’ve been hesitant to push the matter for fear of being deemed medically unfit to drive. I just don’t know what to do. Everything my kids do for extracurriculars is 30+ minutes away. Many appts are that far or further. Groceries are that far. My wife can’t be the one working and also do everything that involves any kind of commute, and I HATE the idea of not being able to help in that manner or do things with my kids.
I don’t want to cause an accident, hurt anyone else, hurt myself, or my kids. I haven’t found any good way to predict when this will happen, no clear pattern other than the length of the drive. As long as I stay right in my little town I’m ok, but much further and it’s risky.
I am just lost for what to do. I do have chronic fatigue syndrome along with hEDS and a myriad of other issues. I’m closing in on 40yrs old this coming fall. If I push harder medically for something at least verging on a reason for these episodes I think there’s a decent chance I’ll have my license suspended which is very isolating living where we live. Not to mention that my wife would have to drive me to any appointments, and I just don’t know how we’d manage that.
I’ve kept my spirits up, lived my life, battled through flairs, and continued to do my thing for years and years, but this feels like one thing too many.
What do I do? How do my family and I manage this? I’m exploring local support services but they are very limited.