Maryflorida, you're ahead of me! My husband, now 73 (I'm 78) has been insulin-dependent for 40 years or so. He's had problems with "the general saluting" for decades. For a while, we got by with a pump. At the time, his kidney function was low, but not even close to dialysis/transplant. When he was 62, he had three failed back surgeries, done by a doc who turned out to be a real quack, was later sued by 38 patients. (He actually targeted people with underlying health problems so that he have an excuse for doing repeated surgeries on them.) For four years, he had back pain, failed to do the assigned PT (with two different providers), but worked full time in a fairly active job selling and demonstrating boats, plus was on dialysis the last two years--and we boated and fished most weekends. When he got the transplant, I hoped it would help his general well-being, but, instead, it was the end of everything. He announced he was "retired," which he believes means he does absolutely nothing. After four months of no exercise, he was having severe pain. I dragged him to the pain clinic, where they said he'd need to do intense PT in order to gain some muscle tone before they could even decently evaluate him. He refused. He sat all day every day, alternating that with lying on the couch...no walking, no movement, zip. After five years of increasing pain, I dragged him back to the pain clinic, and he started biweekly PT--but failed to follow through at home without horrible fights. After 10 months, the PT woman gave up, and I certainly don't blame her. It's been two years since, and he's far worse. With the excuse of Covid, he's only left the house for me to drive him to the nearby hospital for labs every three months, and he's gotten far, far worse. We were evacuated three weeks ago due to forest fires, and the 5.5 hours sitting in the car (much of it only a half mile from home) was far too much for him, so it was another big downturn.
I've had some difficult times myself, due to Meniere's going bilateral. For a few months, I had ever-increasing bouts of V&V (vertigo and vomiting) until they were a daily event of several hours lying without moving. Finally found a local doc willing to prescribe hormones, regained the hearing I'd lost and got more stable. Increased the stability by going to a vestibular rehab specialist and have done the exercises ever since, with great good effect. I still hike miles in a wild little river a two-hour drive from home...entirely by myself, no cell reception whatsoever, just me and my dog. Due to volunteering for Backpack for Kids, I drive two hours each way every Wed. to load, give or take, 500 loaves of bread...then unload and pack it into freezers the next morning, followed by pulling bread frozen the previous week to distribute to various charities around town. Since the fire (which took 245 houses just outside our town), I've been volunteering every day to distribute and store food, esp. perishables. I'm exhausted, mostly because of the evacuees showing me photo after photo of what used to be their homes. We're all masked, so sometimes the only thing to do is give someone a big hug (Covid be damned). As I'm sure you've realized, we're stuck in an unfortunate situation where the last years of our lives are not what we had hoped at all. Still, seeing all those photos of burnt homes makes me extremely grateful that this place is still standing. It looks awfully good right now!

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