Getting Older Alone: A Doctor Visit, Nerve Damage & the Reality of Aging In Today's Health System🥼

[appalachiablue]

- Offended Outcast, Dec. 30, 2025. (8 mins).

- Drs visit to find answers about numbness, nerve damage, and loss of strength in my right arm. I was reminded how slow, complicated and emotionally draining today's healthcare system has become, esp. for seniors living alone.
--------
Comments: I hear you. I hardly noticed my 40s, 50s, and 60s. But when I hit 70, it seems like my 'check engine' light stays on...

[mopinko]

1. boy howdy.

i went through this last yr w a colon stricture. despite plenty of clues, and other tests that wd have shown it, they HAD TO have a scope. the wait was 3 mos, but i couldnt get through the prep. (a clue) ended up taking 7 mos to get it done.
even after they figured it out, they were in no hurry to fix it. it was a 3 mo wait for surgery.
ended up in the er w a ruptured colon. 7 hr, middle of the night, full midline incision surgery and a temp ostomy. a week in the hospital. pretty damn close to dead.
shd have been a 2 hr non-invasive surgery, w a couple days in hospital.
then a 2nd surgery to reverse the ostomy.
8 mos of constipation. for no fucking good reason.

now i’m playing that again w a pinched nerve in my lower back. if i was younger, they’d prolly rec surgery. but since most of my spine is deteriorating, it’s steroid shots instead, w a mo wait for each 1.

getting old is not for the faint of heart.

[SheltieLover]

2. That's ridiculous, Mo!

[mopinko]

5. yes, it is.

after they finally figured it, they did a test they cd have done at any time.

[SheltieLover]

6. Morons

[appalachiablue]

3. Sorry, you've really been through it! There ought to be a law for a decent, functional health system.

[mopinko]

4. crazy part is this is chicago.

there’s a huge system here. lotta ppl quit in the plague, tho. i lost 3 docs.
but even when i got to the er, it was an 8 hr wait to get to the or.

[snot]

7. I've had similar experiences lately, though not quite so scary as yours!

but similar in that some fairly serious problems that clearly required surgical fixes were nonetheless delayed for months, leaving me partially disabled and/or in pain during the interim.

Part of the problem was that it often took months just to get in to see the right kind of doctor. (Fwiw, I recently did a bit of rough internet research, and what I found indicated that there are actually more doctors per capita than there were 20 years ago, but they're working less hours.)

I also suspect doctors are having to jump through more hoops to get insurance claims paid, and that that is also having a negative effect on the quality of care we do get to the extent we get it, both because it sucks up their and their staff's time, and also because the docs are required to exhaust every cheaper, alternative treatment, etc., before resorting to surgery, and just generally to focus more on box-checking and documentation, so that they end up just going through the motions of care without actually giving as much of it as they used to.

The upshot is that care is delayed; but there's ultimately more expense involved for everyone concerned –– unless the patient dies or switches to different insurance coverage before actually receiving the most expensive treatment. In that case, the insurance company avoids having to pay for the worst of the expense.

[mopinko]

8. even w a referral from the er after my 1st visit,

i still had to wait a mo to see a gi. didnt get moved up after a 2nd visit 2 wks later.
that system is now 9 hospitals and half the docs in town. gobble gobble.

[snot]

9. Ugh.

It's a convoluted form of rationing.

[mopinko]

10. when my pcp retired in 2020,

i had to wait 3 mos to see someone else, in the same office, w all my records rt there, cuz now i was a ‘new patient’. i was w the last doc for 12 yrs.
it’s all gotten nuts.