No Wonder Older People Are Cranky!

My husband and I were in reasonably good health up until March 2018.  We’re both in our 50s.  My husband has been a paraplegic since he was 19 when his spine was crushed and he has been on pain management for many years. 

March of last year, my husband began having some really scary health issues.  He would wake in the middle of the night, short of breath, with chest pains, clammy and vomiting.  We’ve taken him to the local emergency room on multiple occasions and we’ve taken him to the Mayo Clinic.  No one has given us a diagnosis and he continues to have these attacks. 

He had a tooth infection.  He has a hiatal hernia.  He has metal rods in his back which aren’t in the correct place anymore.  His left shoulder has been hurting for years.  He’s frequently in pain despite being on pain medication for chronic pain.  His right hip hurts.  His low back hurts.  He continues to have bladder infections.  He has high blood pressure and diabetes.  He’s overweight.  He has complained of foot pain for years and his feet are frequently cold and almost always discolored to the point of being nearly black at times. 

August of last year, I suddenly had vertigo and have had it virtually daily since.  I desperately tried to identify a cause and solution so I could keep my job.  Four months after onset, I had to resign my position as I no longer could afford my health insurance premiums and still didn’t have a cause.  I still have no idea how to resolve the problem. 

We’ve had to wait months to get referrals to specialists.  We’ve gone through all the testing our Nurse Practitioner ordered.  I’ve done a lot of research online and have come to appointments well prepared with details about symptoms.  I even came with a list of possible medications to share with her. 

It almost seems like our “Primary Care Physician” who’s a nurse practitioner is clueless about what’s causing our symptoms and either doesn’t care enough or doesn’t have the time to try to figure it out and is waiting for it to resolve itself or for us to find a solution. 

It almost seems like the insurance companies are waiting as long as possible to give authorization for referrals, in the hope that we won’t need them when it resolves itself, we’ll give up on getting the medical help we need, or we’ll die.  Any of those scenarios means they don’t have to pay for diagnostic testing. 

I know my husband and I are at our wits’ end some days.  We are hurting, scared, tired, depressed and unhappy. 

No wonder older people are cranky!