I've been checking in here from time to time, but there are a lot of distractions right now. Of course my physical abilities have been severely hampered for the past 12 years, but I get by with a lot of help from Lynn. Well, a month or two ago, she woke up one morning and couldn't walk! She had a severe pain shooting from her butt to her foot in her right leg. We had no clue what was going on and figured she'd simply "slept wrong" and it would work itself out. It didn't and it's been really crippling. Of course, with her job loss due to Covid, we've been paying through the nose for insurance, so now is the time to try using it. Well, it seems EVERY doctor in town wants a cut! I'm not sure how the plan works exactly. We get a discount on some things, but seem to get nailed on others. It turns out we have something like a $9500.00 deductible to meet before the insurance really kicks in, so we've been nickel and dimed half to death lately. Each doctor wants his/her $50 office visit and it seems EVERY one of them has their own favorite drug of choice. She's been prescribed 4 different pain killers and not one of them has done a thing. It seems each doctor collects their $$$, prescribes a pain killer, then ends up referring us to a different specialist where the cycle starts all over again. She's had General Practitioners, Pain Control Specialists, an Ultrasound, CT Scan and MRI. Last week, we were referred to a Neurologist and then to a Neurological Surgeon just yesterday. It seems she has three bulged discs in her spine as well as bone spurs on her spine. All are pushing on her Sciatica nerve and causing the pain. To make matters worse, the MRI showed a cyst on her spine as well as another cyst on her kidney. Damn! When it rains, it pours!
To add to the stress, I've had to take on much of the general housework and cooking (under her direction of course). Grocery shopping is a chore as we have to park, then I go in to get one of those electric scooters for her. The same goes for the bazillion doctor appointments we've had. Between us, we've practically lived at doctor offices lately as many of my appointments came due after being postponed during the big Covid mess. I'm talking 3-4 days/week doing nothing but running around for appointments. Last week, we were pretty burned out and headed for the beach for the weekend (not far, just Clearwater). We didn't do much more than stay in the room watching tv, but we just needed a break. We did have a nice dinner Friday night at a Vietnamese place we'd never tried and again on Saturday night for another first at a Thai restaurant that turned out to be one of the best we've found in many years! Other than that, it was just a restful weekend away.
As it stands now, we're awaiting a call from a Neurological Surgeon who is reviewing the case and will most likely be scheduling spinal surgery of some sort (we really don't know yet). To add insult to injury, this all came up just a couple months after buying the motorhome that we were supposed to be touring the country in right now, but we've already cancelled three trips and have no clue when we'll be able to back it out of the driveway again. It's just sitting and depreciating as we speak. We normally visit Lynn's mom in L.A. every year for her birthday (or Thanksgiving, whichever we can get the best rates for). We didn't make it last year due to Covid, but have tickets (purchased in March) to be there for her birthday. The trip is Nov. 2 thru Nov. 16, but we have no clue if we'll even be able to make it. To add another kick in the pants, due to budget constraints, we bought the cheap seats which are non-refundable! So, right now, we're not only awaiting word from her Neurological Surgeon, but the VA just called and said after my last exam, they found a spot on my liver. They want to take a closer look at and just scheduled an MRI for me next week to see what that's all about! Arrrggghhh! I've always heard that getting old isn't for wimps ... and I'm really starting to believe it.
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Originally Posted by quercus alba
