Acknowledging the pressure

July 23, 2019

“You’re feeling a lot of pressure.” When my therapist said those words, everything clicked into place. Yes! That’s what I was feeling and unable to acknowledge for myself, much less express to her, but she figured it out. And suddenly, it all made sense.

It’s hard enough to feel ill all of the time, but I also feel responsible for how I address my illnesses. I go to 5 different doctors and get 6 different opinions. I do my own research and figure out a course of action, but no doctor will order the tests I want or the prescription that I feel will help. I try to sort through all of the possibilities, the research, the unknowns, the assumptions, the inconclusive data. I talk to experts and I ask questions of other patients. I look at as many resources as I can. But at the end of the day, it’s up to me, and me alone, to decide what to do.

That’s a lot of pressure!

I want to feel better. I want to feel as well as possible. I don’t know what that is. Would that mean I was well enough to walk 3 miles? To finally get and care for the dog I’ve always wanted? To attend a wedding without having to leave early? To go out 3 nights in a row without becoming so ill that I can’t function for days afterwards? What is a reasonable goal? I don’t know. No one knows. But still, I aim to feel better, whatever that might be.

And as I aim to feel better, I must make myriad decisions. It’s scary and overwhelming. I have a bit one coming up in a day and a half and yes, I am overwhelmed and scared. I have a lot of research to do between now and then. I worry that my doctor might not agree with the approach I want to take or vice versa. I could be wrong. I won’t know until I try this new medication. This is my health, my one and only body, my life. If I get this wrong, there are no do-overs. The result would be damage that is likely irreversible. On the other hand, doing nothing will also result in irreversible damage, which means I have to do something. And I am the only person who can ultimately decide what that something will be.

So yeah, that’s a shit-ton of pressure. And I hate it. At least now I recognize it for what it is. I am learning to sit with my feelings. Still, the pressure is intense and it’s real. This is my life that I’m deciding about. I hope I make choices that improve it.

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Posted by chronicrants

Feeling a mysterious new contradiction

June 19, 2019

Last night I went to a Meetup group for the first time in 7 or 8 months. The folks there greeted me warmly and asked what I had been up to, and why I hadn’t been around. And the thing is, I found it hard to answer, even to myself.

I had been thinking about that before I went. At first, I was busy. Then I didn’t feel well. Then I felt better, but I was trying to catch up from not feeling well. It was never a priority – yes, there were times I could have gone but chose not to. But also, lately I have either been feeling too ill to go out, or else I’m feeling pretty good and I’m using that opportunity to catch up on household chores, fun projects, and spending time with close family and friends.

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Most recently, the surprising thing is that for the past month or so, I have been feeling so much better, while at the same time I feel that I am struggling more than usual. This is new to me, and hard to wrap my head around, much less describe to someone else. The closest I have come so far is a battery metaphor, since this is mostly related to energy and fatigue (though other symptoms play a role, too.) My battery never gets to 100% anymore, and probably never will. But lately I feel like I struggle to get my battery as high as it had been. If prior to the past month it sometimes got to 65% on good days, now it never gets above 50%.

But here’s the surprising part: it goes down more slowly. Before, it wouldn’t take much for me to go from 65% to 50% to 40%, but lately I feel like I can do a lot more at 50% before I drop down to 40% or lower. It’s an odd feeling. I’m more tired on my best days, but I can do more because I stay at 50% for a lot longer.

I want to know what this means. Is it a sign of improvement or a sign of deterioration? I believe it has to do with going off of an adrenal supplement. The goal was to stop the supplement for 2 weeks so I could take a test, then resume it. The first few days were horrible, but then I actually started to feel better. I had to put off the test for an extra week because of scheduling issues, and by then, I wanted to see what would happen. After all, I really did feel better than I had in a while. Now it’s been 5 weeks and I am anxiously waiting for the test results. What will they show? Will I need to go back on the supplement? Will I instead need the prescription that we were contemplating? Or is my body better off on its own? I am figuratively chewing my fingernails in anticipation.

My body is a series of mysteries. Sometimes there are answers, but far too often I never find out what is going on. I have learned to accept that for the less pressing issues (though sometimes I later find out they were more important than I had realized) but since fatigue has been my most disabling symptom for many years, this is tantalizingly close. I can almost feel the answer to the mystery dangling in front of me, but I can’t quite reach it. I am aching to know, though, if I am improving or deteriorating. Could I be on the verge of a breakthrough? Or is it the edge of a downward slide? Maybe the iron infusion that I had dreaded is having an affect? My fear is that the test won’t give conclusive results, and I won’t know why I feel this way or how to proceed. I should find out any day now, and until then all I can do is wait.

I see doctors constantly, and when they ask how I have been, it is almost always hard to explain. But now the answer is that I feel both better and worse at the same time. I hope they can help nudge towards more of the better.

 

Leave a Comment » | Expectations, Fatigue, Frustration, Limitations, Rants, Raves, Symptoms, Unpredictable | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Insurance that won’t cover medication

May 10, 2019

I have always been financially independent, meaning I supported myself. I worked in nonprofit for my entire career, so I never earned a lot of money. Still, I lived frugally and made it work, while managing to save money. Then I became too sick to work. Suddenly, money became a big problem.

Social security, fuel assistance, and food stamps helped, but they weren’t enough. I was pulling money out of savings every month. Thankfully I had savings, and enough that I wasn’t on the verge of ruin, but not enough to last me indefinitely. I tried to work multiple times. Each time I increased my hours, I got sicker. Some weeks I could manage 5 hours of work. Some weeks 10 hours. But if I tried to work 10 hours per week for two weeks in a row, it was a disaster. Even 5 hours per week wasn’t sustainable over time.

Then last year, I got Section 8! (For those outside the U.S., Section 8 is a housing subsidy. These days, the wait list to get Section 8 can be 10 years or more, and the restrictions for using it are very strict. With this type of Section 8, you pay no more than 1/3 of your income on rent, and the government covers the rest.) I was in shock. I thought I would be on the waiting list for several more years, but out of the blue, I reached the top of the list. Finally, I could cover all of my basic expenses with my benefits! I would still have to take money out of savings if I wanted to go to the theater, eat dinner with friends, buy clothes, or pay for car repairs, but this was still a huge improvement. It lasted about a minute.

Less than two months later, I got kicked off of food stamps. They said I earned $20 per month over the limit. I had no idea where that number came from, because I wasn’t close to the limit. So I did the paperwork and sent it in. I got food stamps back, but the same month I started a new prescription. It has to be compounded, as probably all of my medications will have to be from now on. That’s the only way to get this particular medication without any corn or gluten in it, which is a medical necessity for me.

Unfortunately, Medicare doesn’t care that it’s a medical necessity; they refuse to cover compounds. At $150 per month, this is obviously not in my budget. I appeal and was denied. I found an amazing patient advocacy group that helped me with a second appeal at no cost. My patient advocate helped me in many ways and this time my appeal included a 1000 word letter about why I need this medication and how it helps me, a more thorough letter from my doctor, and more of my own medical records.

And I was denied. Again. I can continue to appeal but it won’t help. Compound medications by their very nature are not FDA approved, and Medicare won’t cover anything that isn’t FDA approved. So I’m stuck.

Again, the good news is that I can afford this. I have savings. The bad news is that savings only goes so far. And every time I need to add a new prescription (I will probably have another in the next month or so) it will most likely need to be compounded. The costs might vary, but it won’t be cheap.

I take a lot of supplements and visit a lot of medical professionals. I spend about $600 on healthcare despite having great insurance. I take only ONE prescription medication and yet my insurance won’t cover it, so now I need to increase my medical spending by 25% to cover this additional $150 per month.

For a few weeks I could cover my expenses without dipping into savings or having to ask my parents for money. It was glorious. If only Medicare worked the way it should, I would still be in that position. Instead, I am watching my savings slowly go down month after month and it’s terrifying. But I need this medication to live.

Now please excuse me, I need to go call in a refill of my medication.

2 Comments | Expectations, Frustration, Healthcare, Medication, Rants | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Debating the line between private and public

April 27, 2019

Today I spent a while editing something I wrote that will be published in a book. Unlike this blog, though, it will be published under my real name. I have gotten so used to writing under Ms. Rants, that I’m feeling a bit confused about this.

In the past seven and a half years I have published 736 posts on this site – yikes! Before I looked it up just now, I guessed it was around 600. That’s a lot of writing, and a lot of posts, during which time I have gotten comfortable sharing a lot. I have spoken about strained relationships, deep fears, and incredibly embarrassing moments. Yes, I know that nothing online is ever completely anonymous, but it’s unlikely that someone will care enough to dig into this tiny little site that doesn’t even make any money to try and find the author, never mind actually make that information public. And if they did, what are the odds anyone would care? This book, on the other hand will be much more widely read, we think. My name will be out there and searchable. And that makes me question, what do I want to share?

This is a question we all make every day in a thousand tiny ways. Today I had to bring my car to the dealer for recall-related repair. What a pain in the butt. They said that at least I would get a voucher for free food from their cafe. This surprised me, and without thinking I said thanks, but that I couldn’t eat anything there because I have Celiac Disease. I didn’t have to say that. I could have said thank you and just left it at that. But I try to bring up Celiac Disease frequently as a way of educating people, and now it’s habit. I want people to hear about it in benign situations, where they don’t feel like “the whole gluten-free thing is blown out of proportion.” That way when they do hear someone requesting gluten-free food, maybe instead of judging that person as being “difficult” they will remember that Celiac is a real problem for real people and instead they might just have some compassion. No, I don’t expect to change minds with throw-away comments, but I figure if they hear it from multiple people, it could have an impact.

I often get asked why I wear knee braces, why I’m limping, or something else that is none of their business. How I answer depends on the person, the way they asked, and my mood. If I don’t feel well, they won’t get a nice answer. If I feel good and have time, and they seem nice and open, maybe I will explain a bit.

But these are all relatively anonymous. The car repair guy knew my name, but that’s just one person, to whom I told one small fact. Now I am considering telling a lot more of my story – my journey through symptoms, diagnosis, shitty doctors, supportive doctors, horrible insurance problems, and all the rest – and telling it to many more people. I don’t mention family or friends in the story, it’s just about me, so it is all my decision.

I always lean towards sharing more. I think we, all of us with chronic illness, will help each other the most by being honest. That is why I made this blog anonymous in the first place. By far the most popular posts on this blog are the ones I thought no one else would care about, and I worried about publishing them because they felt super private, but I did it. Every single time, the response was huge, with people thanking me for sharing because they could relate. So I want to be open and share.

But I am also aware of the world we live in. This is the world where I could get harassed for being on government benefits, put down for eating gluten-free, and generally maligned for being ill.

One day, a friend at my chronic pain support group came up to me and told me she liked my blog. I was confused. It turns out, she had read this site and recognized that it was me. I felt exposed. But this would be different. I would go into it openly, knowingly.

I will share a lot in my story. I will be open about many things. But as I read those words again this morning, I had to ask myself, just how open do I want to be? Because once it’s out there, in a book, there’s no taking it back. And while I want to use my situation to help others, there’s a line. I just wish I knew where it was.

Have any of you had to deal with this decision of how much to make public on a larger scale? How do you decide? Please comment below, because I’d love to know! And if you’ve had to deal with this decision (and I’m sure you have, because we all have!) I would love to hear about that too. How do you decide?

Leave a Comment » | Decisions, Educating, Isolation, Rants, Raves | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

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