I hate what I've become

Posted by mrmacabre @mrmacabre, Apr 17 2:36pm

I've been on this forum for a few weeks now, so I don't think I need to repeat the entire story of the last 15 years of my life here. Long story short, I'm 66 years old, been retired on SSDI for almost 10 years now, and suffer from chronic pain due to osteoarthritis, and idiopathic poly neuropathy in my feet.
From October of 2011 to November of 2018, I had surgery 12 times. I had 5 knee operations, 3 carpal tunnel surgeries, elbow surgery, 2 spinal fusion procedures in my neck, and skin cancer removal.
Physically, I'm now a shell of what I used to be, I have no physical endurance any more, I can't walk for more than 10 or 15 minutes without help, and I have balance issues as well. I'm not allowed to get on a ladder by my family for any reason now, which is humiliating.
I always worked a very physical job for over 35 years, which obviously has taken it's toll.
When I walked away from my job in July of '15, we had to sell our home and move in with our son and his family for 2 years. Retiring the way I did completely screwed my wife and myself over financially forever, we 'll never own a home again, and she's working to support us while I sit on my ass in the house dealing with the chronic, never ending pain.
I swore that I'd never become a fat old man when I was retired, and that's exactly what I've become.
I've decided that I'm done with the "specialist" doctors, I've had so many of them, and mostly what they've done is cost us money that we don't have. How can I lose weight if I can't even walk any more? I'm done them. I'm not going to bankrupt ourselves or our kids with more surgeries or treatments.
My life is pain, and pain just means that I'm still alive.

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@mrmacabre

I'm already taking prescription meds for pain, including lorazepam and gabapentin. I also take prescription strength Alleve when I'm having a really bad day with my arthritis.
Sometimes I wonder what I did wrong to screw up our possible retirement future as badly as I've done. I worked my ass off to support my family, I always had at least 1 job. In my entire working career, I never collected a penny of unemployment in 35 years. Before we relocated from southern California to Washington state in 1994, I had a full time job and 2 part time jobs just to make ends meet.
When I "retired" in 2015, I was working 4 ten hour shifts, but in reality I was gone for almost 14 hours every work day. I got up at 4:30 am, left the house before 5:00, and didn't get home before 6:00 pm most of the time. I worked this kind of schedule for almost 17 years before my body started breaking down.

I know that you've had to battle with addiction, which just makes things even harder, and like you said, "one day at a time". I've never considered myself to be "normal" by whatever standard most people consider that to be. Besides being the only Atheist in my family, I'm also the only metal head, along with being a fan of horror films and literature. But I've also never consumed alcohol, smoked, or used any illegal drugs of any kind. According to our son, I'm a walking conundrum, based on the way I present myself in public. You'd think, at least I think this way, that my wife and I would be able to have a stable, normal retirement in out last years, but nope, I screwed that up.
I have no idea what our future is going to look like.

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I have neuropathy and just switched from gabapentin to pregabalin (lyrica) and it helps me feel better. Have you tried lyrica?? I had a bad time with swelling with gabapentin.

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