It’s HELL Getting Old

In the poem “I Wish You Enough” by Bob Perks, which I’ve often referred to as a testament to what life is about, and I quote “I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.” I actually addressed the meaning of “enough” in my earlier post entitled “The Letter “E” and What it Should Mean”.

“Back in the day” I was full of “piss and vinegar” mistakenly thinking I’d always be that way throughout my entire life. Au contraire, as I was never so wrong because, quite frankly, it’s HELL getting old!!

As I’ve entered the Winter of my life, I find it to be rather quiet in comparison to all those years when my focus and purpose was devoted to my career. It’s so important, even in retirement, to find some focus and purpose even though my phone seldom rings anymore and my emails have dwindled. My days once were long in an attempt to accomplish my daily workplace goals filled with appointments, meetings, and other responsibilities. Now, between La Bear and myself, we have a lot of appointments, but we’ve found they’re with mostly doctors. This Baby Boomer has come to the conclusion that life has caught up with us and I’m not really so very fond of it.

Hey, we’re both very fortunate and we’re so much better than we deserve, but Bob Perks, in his poem, wishes us “enough”. Looking at this from a rather negative and selfish perspective, the Baby Boomer believes he and La Bear have had more than their fair share of “enough”, but guess what, we all know there’s more to come as the “light at the end of the tunnel is a freight train” for sure.

Not to belabor as I digress, but in the last ten years we’ve survived thirteen invasive surgeries along with a number of non-invasive procedures. The biggest of all opportunities is being able to schedule anything in the near term as it’s weeks or months to get any provider to see you.

La Bear, for well over a year, has suffered from immense desperate pain, which after a number of visits to different doctors, it was determined she needed hip replacement surgery. Okay, so we finally now know the reason for the debilitating pain which has tremendously affected her way of life, not only her physical state, but her mental state, being heavily sedated in a failed attempt to alleviate her constant pain, and we’re told by our surgeon’s assistant who hasn’t one compassionate bone in her body that the next available date is four months away and there’s no way she’s adding us to an already long waiting list. All right, so we schedule a cortisone shot which did provide significant relief for a couple of months, allowed us to go on the cruise as she was able to get around on a scooter, but these last three weeks prior to her surgery date were awful. You know, when the “love of your life” for forty-five years is suffering from pain, you are as well and it also takes its toll. Well, and I’m not kidding, the week prior to her surgery, La Bear has a debilitating case of the flu where she is hospitalized for two days forcing us to cancel her surgery. Adding insult to injury, the surgeon’s assistant declares we’ll now have to wait an additional three months for La Bear to have her hip surgery. She’d try to talk to the doctor and see if we can get in earlier, but he’s very busy seeing “hundreds of patients” and being fit in is not guaranteed. Folks, not only was that unacceptable, but it sent me “to the moon”! After being able to “pull a number of strings” and getting our primary physician involved, our surgeon was able to fit her in just two days ago (two weeks following her previously scheduled date) and La Bear is doing very well and is finally pain free other than from her point of surgery. Bottom line is it’s HELL getting old!!

Another thing that’s for sure is I ain’t finished with the surgeon’s assistant. Her lack of compassion, not being the least bit friendly, and the negative way she communicates is unforgiveable and she needs to immediately change her ways and be severely reprimanded as she’s certainly in the wrong profession. I’m yet to determine my strategy, but I’m certainly focused and have purpose in attaining a means to the end.

Hopping on “my stump” for a moment, the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries in America are running amok. Healthcare costs are “through the roof” as are the costs for prescription drugs even with insurance. Speaking of insurance, even being on Medicare and having both a supplemental plan and a prescription plan, we’re being forced to spend thousands of dollars annually. These industries are “sick” and need to be dealt with immediately.

Our calendar is full with these difficult to schedule medical appointments. I’m tired of always having to state my name and date of birth and being reminded to bring a picture ID and my insurance cards. Then when I arrive to my appointment, I have to sign in, then check in, and wait for long periods of time past my scheduled appointment to finally see most likely a PA, not the doctor, who are both being overscheduled and look and act out of sorts rushing to get through your appointment focusing more on their computer than me. Oh, and then there’s the Patient Portal which I’m sick of and is so much more confusing than helpful. This is not only unacceptable, but extremely disconcerting.

One time, I got stuck in traffic due to a wreck and called the physician’s office to say I was running late being told if I was going to arrive fifteen minutes past my scheduled appointment, I’d have to reschedule. Oh, my, you’ve gotta be kidding me especially since I was forced to wait three months to get this appointment.

Hey, I live in an area where we supposedly have excellent medical care and facilities and know of friends who’ve had to move back to this area because where they were living in retirement provided few options for care. The Baby Boomer is telling you healthcare in America sucks!

Oh, and just one more thing, it’s HELL getting old!!!