Getting old sucks

[Dennis Taylor 18701]

On 6/6/2023 at 4:09 PM, Elvis said:

Just the one vasectomy.  Wife had life threatening complications after an ablasion (it shuts down the baby maker but not the fun tunnel).  Well that turned into sepsis. A week in intensive care with her with a 1 year old and a 5 year old was also not cool.  not cool.

 

But no more kids!

Some people are impervious to vasectomies

 

[HRSchenker 2259]

On 6/1/2023 at 10:31 AM, SilasCoade said:

That may be the motivation for some but for most it's actually just simpler to submit one charge that you know is higher than the highest charger altered by any of the 732 different benefit plans your bill could be subject to. Rather than waste the medical office staff time getting familiar with the details of every plan, which change randomly anyway, just bill the most and let them figure out how much they actually owe. If there were a single payer system this would all go away immediately.

 

On 6/1/2023 at 10:49 AM, Crapinon said:

This happens all the time; there is a set charge for a procedure. But instead of the doctor having a set cost for the whole thing, they a la cart the invoice hoping it will get around the insurance codes. They add separate lines for sutures, bandages, gloves, giving an injection (the cost of the medicine is covered but there is a separate line charge for actually giving the shot, etc.  Anesthesiologist get screwed all the time because of the way the hospital bills. You would assume that with a surgery you would need one to proceed but because they appear as a separate line on the bill, they are required to have preauthorization. If the hospital doesn't submit it for preauthorization, their fee can be declined. I know they are correcting this but the games that are played between the insurance companies and doctors/hospital are insane.

If yall think medical billing is nuts you should see what I have to put up with in the pharmacy billing world. Patient brings in an order for vancomycin capsules to treat diarrhea caused by a specific bug. I process the claim and get a gross profit of -$85 due to MAC pricing. So not only are they paying me $85 below what I can buy the drug at, they're enforcing a maximum allowable cost on me so I have to shop for this price. Call the insurance up and ask them where they're finding this drug at the MAC price. "Sorry that's proprietary information." Now I have to decide between turning the patient away, filling the prescription and filing a MAC appeal with the insurance company hoping they give me my $85 120 days from now, or fill it and lose my shirt. 

[RPM 26215]

On 6/14/2023 at 10:56 AM, Underdog said:

Start prep for poop-chute procedure today, black coffee and Jello for breakfast and already have my Gatorade and exlax mixed and ready to go for later.  I'm already starving and only more jello, black coffee and fat free broth to look forward to. 

If you're not chugging a gallon of GoLytely you're fucking cheating.

[Underdog 28446]

On 6/14/2023 at 11:56 AM, Underdog said:

Start prep for poop-chute procedure today, black coffee and Jello for breakfast and already have my Gatorade and exlax mixed and ready to go for later.  I'm already starving and only more jello, black coffee and fat free broth to look forward to. 

Well that’s done and over with, pretty much clean bill of health but for one small polyp and the hemis.  I should hear back in a week or two on polyp results, found the Gatorade/Miralax cocktail worked fine. 

[WithoutAClue 15207]

[Armybrat 40725]

[SHOOTER12 8788]

23 hours ago, WithoutAClue said:

This.right here.

[deadshank 24651]

[freyguy 4245]

why did my old ass decide to change the brakes on my tahoe today?  Goddamn this heat about killed me

[Not that Bob 734]

4 hours ago, freyguy said:

why did my old ass decide to change the brakes on my tahoe today?  Goddamn this heat about killed me

I look at these situations as service to society. If you fix your own brakes you are depriving some mechanic of much needed income. Be a team player. Prime the economic machine. 

[SHOOTER12 8788]

6 hours ago, freyguy said:

why did my old ass decide to change the brakes on my tahoe today?  Goddamn this heat about killed me

 

2 hours ago, Not that Bob said:

I look at these situations as service to society. If you fix your own brakes you are depriving some mechanic of much needed income. Be a team player. Prime the economic machine. 

Freaking heat would have killed a 20-30 something. 

[closetohumping 17392]

Every time I come back from a run I feel like I've been in a fight with Mike Tyson.

[Tex Long 4346]

Some of the recent posts here prompted me to offer this... 

I've been (I hope that's now become was) having various mostly minor illnesses for a couple of years. Mainly UTIs that responded well to medication, but would come back after some weeks, coupled with general weakness and other symptoms.

Long story short(er), my family doc started me on a round of specialists, and the nephrologist said that my kidneys looked terrible for a 40-year-old, but damned good for 80. She went through my blood work for the last few months, and told me my symptoms made me a poster child for parathyroid adenoma - way too much calcium in the blood being classic for that. A few weeks later - last week, as I write this - endocrine surgeon cuts my throat, excises the growth (benign, adenoma) from my right rear parathyroid, sewed things back up, and within 24 hours the calcium level was way down and I'm feeling better than I have in a long damn time.  Muscle weakness and fatigue (particularly legs) is basically gone, doing much better with balance, not falling asleep in the middle of the day... 

You know, this may not be the only thing that was wrong with my body, but the overall effect caused by a tiny (rice-grain size) gland on a thyroid was huge. I've been noticing all sorts of things that were painful and not working properly are now fine. 

Yeah, as the topic title says, getting old sucks... but it's way the hell better than the main (only?) alternative. 

[GoPokes83 2236]

Got up early and the house was super quiet. I found the amount of grunts, sighs, groans and other small noises and sounds I make just getting up and moving around in the morning surprising. When did all that BS start?

[mininghorn88 2263]

1 hour ago, GoPokes83 said:

Got up early and the house was super quiet. I found the amount of grunts, sighs, groans and other small noises and sounds I make just getting up and moving around in the morning surprising. When did all that BS start?

Every time that I stand up my knees sounds like the backspin of a ratchet wrench.

[Scheiss Meister 8399]

9 hours ago, mininghorn88 said:

Every time that I stand up my knees sounds like the backspin of a ratchet wrench.

Mine sound like a .22 round went off in each.  It usually is painless, but every once in a while one will kind of hang up, then pop and feel like a .22 round actually did go off in it.

[BearSchlong 8077]

Cataract surgery today. Game changer. Can't wait to get the other eye done. No prescription glasses ever again.

[WithoutAClue 15207]

[nnm 36065]

44 minutes ago, WithoutAClue said:

Do you have a surveillance camera on me?!?

[RPM 26215]

wrong thread

Edited June 28, 2023 by RPM

[HouTex 1850]

On 6/23/2023 at 11:27 PM, BearSchlong said:

Cataract surgery today. Game changer. Can't wait to get the other eye done. No prescription glasses ever again.

Yep.  My 87 year old mother has had both eyes done and she sees way better than I do.  

[Not that Bob 734]

Getting old sucks. You either have a condition that threatens you every day, or you watch your friends and family struggle with a condition that threatens them every day. I have three good friends now who are on the threshold. I would not be at all surprised to get that phone call from their wife, weeping and asking me to help with the funeral arrangements, or whatever other help a good friend should give at that time. You drop everything and go help. Finish, and then go back to what you were doing. Catching up with your own stuff. Hoping to get it all in order before your wife makes that same phone call to one of your friends. Wondering how you managed to outrun The Grim Reaper a little longer than your buddy.  You both raised hell in your younger days. Beer for beer. Cigarette for cigarette.  No justification for you being alive while he's gone. Worried that the footsteps you hear behind you are The Reaper, coming to take you next. Wondering which of your friends will get that call from your wife. Getting old sucks. 

[Armybrat 40725]

1 hour ago, HouTex said:

Yep.  My 87 year old mother has had both eyes done and she sees way better than I do.  

Since cataract surgery on both my eyes two years ago, I see much better. 
But the additional retina surgery on my left eye, while stopping the growth of a film causing distortion, has not cleared it up. 
Supposedly it isn’t getting any worse. Definition is better because of the 1st surgery, but things can still look “blotchy” and/or wavy.

Right eye is 20/20 for distance, but needs 3x readers for close-up.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Armybrat

[nnm 36065]

[Crapinon 2250]

I had rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder 6 years ago. When my doctor took x-rays and MRI's to confirm, he said "I'll see you in a few yours for the other one". My appointments Monday. 

[SHOOTER12 8788]

1 hour ago, Crapinon said:

I had rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder 6 years ago. When my doctor took x-rays and MRI's to confirm, he said "I'll see you in a few yours for the other one". My appointments Monday. 

Funfunfun...

Most of all, GOOD LUCK!

Edited June 30, 2023 by SHOOTER12

[High Plains Drifter 10970]

 

sciatic nerve on the right side of my ass has been heating up lately. Its been hell climbing up and down scaffolding this week.

 

[RPM 26215]

16 hours ago, Crapinon said:

I had rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder 6 years ago. When my doctor took x-rays and MRI's to confirm, he said "I'll see you in a few yours for the other one". My appointments Monday. 

Going through post-surgery PT for mine. It's a party and my therapist is a sadist.

[Crapinon 2250]

On 6/30/2023 at 10:13 AM, SHOOTER12 said:

Funfunfun...

Most of all, GOOD LUCK!

Tendonitis or bursitis. Cortisone shot for the win. A little arthritis and minor bone spurs but no surgery for a while. 

[Tex Long 4346]

On 6/23/2023 at 11:27 PM, BearSchlong said:

Cataract surgery today. Game changer. Can't wait to get the other eye done. No prescription glasses ever again.

Depends on the lenses. Folks I know, who've done this, have 20/20 distance, but now need readers. YMMV

[ImissWallyPryor 9045]

27 minutes ago, Tex Long said:

Depends on the lenses. Folks I know, who've done this, have 20/20 distance, but now need readers. YMMV

My wife just had her eye exam, and - much to her disappointment - her cataracts haven’t worsened. She was kinda looking forward to not needing glasses. She had lasik surgery 23 years ago by Michael Dell, and that is still good enough that she would only need a lens that will correct her near vision.

Note:  Her current eye doctor has told her several times that the lasik scars from Dr. Dell’s surgery are the best she’s ever seen. 

[Tex Long 4346]

4 minutes ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

My wife just had her eye exam, and - much to her disappointment - her cataracts haven’t worsened. She was kinda looking forward to not needing glasses. She had lasik surgery 23 years ago by Michael Dell, and that is still good enough that she would only need a lens that will correct her near vision.

Note:  Her current eye doctor has told her several times that the lasik scars from Dr. Dell’s surgery are the best she’s ever seen. 

I'm looking at cataract surgery in my right eye. My left eye has been like 20/300 most of my life - that means I can't see the big E at the top of the chart - but only very light cataract. Up close, within say 12-18", it's fine and I read with that eye.  Right eye is pretty fucked from five years of AMD, with the fun-house mirror distortion fairly well smoothed out and acuity around 20/70, but needs lots of light more or less due to increasingly heavy cataract. Eye doc says the retina isn't too bad, and lens replacement might make things bright enough to get back to relatively normal vision in that eye. Might. We'll see. Hahaha, see?

It do suck, tho'... it sho' do.

[Dennis Taylor 18701]

On 6/30/2023 at 11:09 PM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

sciatic nerve on the right side of my ass has been heating up lately. Its been hell climbing up and down scaffolding this week.

 

Is it caused by a disc issue or by the piriformis? I guess of you're on scaffolding it could be the disc but if you're at a desk or driving a lot it could be the latter which can be helped siflgnicantly by certain stretches

[SHOOTER12 8788]

3 hours ago, Crapinon said:

Tendonitis or bursitis. Cortisone shot for the win. A little arthritis and minor bone spurs but no surgery for a while. 

Be damned sure, i.e. second opinion. My left shoulder was misdiagnosed as such for years.....until it started coming out of joint every time I hit a pothole. 

[Crapinon 2250]

44 minutes ago, SHOOTER12 said:

Be damned sure, i.e. second opinion. My left shoulder was misdiagnosed as such for years.....until it started coming out of joint every time I hit a pothole. 

Follow up in 6 weeks. If it's not better we do an MRI and go from there.  

[SHOOTER12 8788]

13 minutes ago, Crapinon said:

Follow up in 6 weeks. If it's not better we do an MRI and go from there.  

IMO, the MRI is critical. DRs fucked around with  diagnoses for YEARS. When they finally(insurance) decided to pay for the MRI, it was way, way too late.  Drs response? "Oops my bad, no way of knowing without an MRI.  When I finally went for the MRI I still ran into problems, insurance decided they wouldn't cover it after all. I expected as much is why I had 5G in my pocket when I went. I told the financial responsibility officer, " here's 5G, we're doing this damned MRI TODAY!.

TLDR, insurance paid, still fucked physically. 

[Brothahorn 10085]

In the middle of a meeting Friday afternoon, suddenly I felt like I’d been hit by a truck. I thought it was flu or Covid and came home to rest.
Rested Saturday. My whole body ached, chills, headache, etc.  Also started having trouble peeing.  
Went to ER first thing Sunday morning, negative for everything. Rested Sunday afternoon. 

Sunday night no sleep. Intense pain, couldn’t pee more than a few dribs and drabs, and it hurt like hell to try. 
Monday morning, back to ER. Tests, etc., etc.  Pain from not peeing, and from trying to pee, was worse than shoulder surgery, worse than ripping my ear halfway off, worse than breaking the many bones I broke in a misspent youth. 

It won’t be confirmed until I get in to see a urologist later this week, but it is probably severe prostate infection/inflammation.  I’m back home with a catheter, the insertion of which through that infected, inflamed prostate was like a red hot poker being shoved up my peehole. And having a catheter is pretty stinkin’ uncomfortable every time I move an inch. I can’t see myself sleeping tonight either.

Apparently this is a thing that sometimes happens to “older guys.”  
 

[SHOOTER12 8788]

35 minutes ago, Brothahorn said:

 

 

 

G'damn bro, good luck with that!

[nnm 36065]

40 minutes ago, Brothahorn said:

 

 

 

Update a month later:  Had a catheter for 8 days (that is really, really uncomfortable for a lot of reasons) and strong antibiotics for 3 weeks. Energy level still only about 75%. It really kicked my tail. But it appears the whole thing is mostly behind me, so to speak. 

[Brothahorn 10085]

Update a month later:  Had a catheter for 8 days (that is really, really uncomfortable for a lot of reasons) and strong antibiotics for 3 weeks. Energy level still only about 75%. It really kicked my tail. But it appears the whole thing is mostly behind me, so to speak. 

Glad to hear that.

You have my sympathy and respect. I lost a couple of inches just reading your post.

[SHOOTER12 8788]

On 6/22/2023 at 6:23 PM, Scheiss Meister said:

Mine sound like a .22 round went off in each.  It usually is painless, but every once in a while one will kind of hang up, then pop and feel like a .22 round actually did go off in it.

"Hello, I'm Mr Meniscus, we'll be getting to know each other very well in the coming months, take care".

[BearSchlong 8077]

Depends on the lenses. Folks I know, who've done this, have 20/20 distance, but now need readers. YMMV

That's why I paid for the premium, laser adjustable lenses. He can go back afterwards and fine tune them.

[nnm 36065]

7 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

That's why I aid for the premium, laser adjustable lenses.

[Spaulding Smails 1551]

5 hours ago, Dennis Taylor said:

Is it caused by a disc issue or by the piriformis? I guess of you're on scaffolding it could be the disc but if you're at a desk or driving a lot it could be the latter which can be helped siflgnicantly by certain stretches

This right here.  Had serious sciatic flare for the first time in my life last November.  To the point I couldn't put my boots on in the morning.  Had to stop on the way to and from work multiple times to get out of the truck.  Started stretching 2X daily.  30 days later, it was damn near gone.  

[Tex Long 4346]

43 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

That's why I paid for the premium, laser adjustable lenses. He can go back afterwards and fine tune them.

How big's the walletectomy on those? Optho says ins covers it these days, but that prolly varies...

 

[Armybrat 40725]

11 hours ago, Tex Long said:

Depends on the lenses. Folks I know, who've done this, have 20/20 distance, but now need readers. YMMV

That’s me.

[Armybrat 40725]

3 hours ago, Tex Long said:

How big's the walletectomy on those? Optho says ins covers it these days, but that prolly varies...

 

Medicare won’t pay for the fancy lens. 
That’s $7,000 extra.

bought a $10 set of three 3x readers at Costco instead.

[Armybrat 40725]

[BearSchlong 8077]

How big's the walletectomy on those? Optho says ins covers it these days, but that prolly varies...
 

My total out-of-pocket for both eyes is about $12k. But I'm only 50 so I look at it as an ROI against having to buy 2 pair of glasses (including progressive custom-made polarized Costa sunglass lenses) every year or so.

I can't wait to fish and golf without prescription lenses.

[Armybrat 40725]