No, not the movie. Sorry if my title dragged you here on a search. Have a great day and my apologies.
This is me bitching about how sucky me getting older is . I was diagnosed in 2015 with Type 2 Diabetes. Certainly there are millions of people in the U.S. also diagnosed with the same. Our culture and eating habits are likely to blame. There are plenty of drugs on the market offered to treat it. Pharmaceutical companies put millions if not billions of dollars advertising their products.
I did follow the instructions of low carb diet exclusively for 1 and a half years. My A1C barely moved. Metformin caused ridiculous diarrhea. It's a common side effect. No one suggested other drugs.
When I moved from Colorado to Ohio I lost my insurance. I couldn't afford paying for insurance so I had no coverage for 4 years. I paid stupid amounts of money to at least get prescriptions from Urgent care since I had no doctor. I had to stop taking an expensive drug for my peripheral neuropathy. I couldn't get on Medicaid because according to them I made too much money from my part time job. (mostly caused by their asking me to work more hours because they kept losing people. Those that did get hired were lazy assholes who constantly were hours late or called out )
So, after 4 years I finally got Medicaid. The company let us go with no notice after working us 30 straight days with no time off.) After being refused unemployment I lived off one of my pensions until it ran out. I then applied for and got Social security and Medicaid.
Then the fun began. I literally feel that I have time bombs going off one after another. First my back. I have Degenerative disc disease. It's annoying and painful. Somehow, after mentioning it twice the NP assigned by my provider did nothing to help but mention going to a pain clinic but provided no referral. The next time I saw her I had started to have problems with my left leg and foot. Cold to the touch, toes changed colors when blood came back in.
The NP ordered an arterial sonogram. I had to call back after a week because I hadn't heard back from anyone about scheduling. Finally heard from scheduling and had the test. The arteries in my leg are definitely occluded, causing the normal flow to push forward and rush back.
This was causing pain that woke me up at night. I saw the NP again. She, was supposed to, order Gabapentin for nerve relief, and they would schedule further testing. Crickets. I called back twice asking about the prescription and they still didn't have it prescribed. It was almost a month before I got it.
Fed up now I called Humana. Let me tell you that I don't care what others may say, Humana quickly handled it. A grievance was sent to the doctor. I was assigned a Nurse Case Manager who is absolutely awesome. She took over my fight to get things done. Turns out that the NP resigned suddenly early on. No one was handling her patients and for liability reasons couldn't prescribe Gabapentin for me. The case manager also got me into Midwest vascular where I am having further tests and will likely be treated with an Angiogram, and they were the ones that made gabapentin possible.
Just so you know, a lot of problems that I and others face is because we fit the profile to have problems due to Diabetes, Family history, smoking and Hypertension. I have all 4. Yes, I should quit smoking. But I seriously don't want to. I don't drink alcohol. I don't use any "recreational drugs" , I don't binge on sweets and desert, or regular food. I honestly can't, it makes me feel ill. My appetite has shrunk. I now take a DM medication that doesn't cause side effects, and I've lost 10 pounds.
I'm happy to say that the gabapentin has relieved the foot pain and tennis elbow pain that was waking me up at night. So every thing is scheduled to happen. I'm having a hard time finding a new doctor. But it will happen. I'm wonky as hell thanks to the gabapentin. Dizzy, off balance, having to grab furniture and walls when I walk. I'm told that this will pass. I hope so. I don't remember feeling like this taking it in the past. Maybe it's a higher dose?
So as I age, which I imagined to be the soft grandma type, I've been diagnosed with Hypertension, Glaucoma, Degenerative disc disease, Diabetes and now Periferal Vascular disease. Getting older has NOT been kind to me. Now my back is saying "Hey, remember me?" And I've lost almost 2 inches in height due to my discs compressing and the cartilage between thinning. It's not a happy feeling.
So soft grandma has warped into a cussing old lady who battles pain daily . I'm almost afraid of getting older now. All my parts out of warranty. Waiting for the next time bomb to go off.
After all this bitching I have to tell you that I still fight the good fight. And I'm not unhappy, just resigned . I try to always treat everyone with respect and kindness, especially the team of people who are helping me . My vittles (that's food for you Yankees) get real low at the end of the month, but I squeeze by fore going on what I have.
used to take for granted like new clothes and shoes
. But those days are gone. Sorry for rambling on. I do live alone and I rarely get the chance to talk to anyone. This is where I dump all my thoughts. So sorry, not sorry, it has to come out somewhere .
Trouble using this today, it won't let me correct it. Maybe because I talk too much, lol .
🧓
Love, Kel
4/14/24 Just an FYI, my balance and dizziness was caused by low potassium levels. My Angiogram was cancelled because of this and wasn't completed until 3/26/24. One of my hypertension meds was flushing the potassium out of my body. I'm now on daily potassium pills.
