The Age Old Question...

I touched on it briefly yesterday but going to talk more about it today.  It's been quite the eventful uneventful health year. 

Brent and I are normally really healthy so we have a high deductible plan for insurance. (my overseas readers hold on for a second and I'll try and explain what that means) He doesn't have a monthly amount taken from his paycheck to cover medical, the plan charges as you use it basically. Preventative care is covered, think annual wellness exams and flu shots, and anything else we pay for it out of pocket until our limit is reached, then insurance picks up the rest of the year at like 80%.

We still get the negotiated discounts from Blue Cross, but pay the balance instead of just a $20 co-pay.

Normally this is a good deal. Sometimes there are exceptions. The year Katie broke her ankle we hit our deductible by March, for instance, but most years we don't come anywhere close to hitting that mark.

This year, depending on what Dr. Rask says tomorrow, we might sail past it. And if I were a betting person I'd say I will have a battery of tests tomorrow and discover that my quick Dr. Google search Thursday was right and it's tendonitis.(De Quervain's tendinosis to be specific) Because that is the way the year has gone.

Something odd comes up (vaginal bleeding, a lump on my leg, wrist pain) I get a full medical work-up with the "this could be nothing, or it could be significant" talk to find that yeah, it was nothing. But because of my age I can't just let things slide.

What a bitch that is.

And it really is age related. Things that aren't a big deal when you are younger become issues as you age. Sometimes it's just things don't happen to your body when you are younger that do happen when you age. Skin bumps and tags and raised areas. Most of them are no big deal. When you are younger you don't get the proliferation of them that show up when you are older. (full disclosure, I had three biopsies done before my mid-40s, one was precancerous so I am absolutely not advocating for ignoring any odd skin coloration or bumps!) I have so many spots, raised areas, odd texture spots and what the hell is that now places on my skin and it seems like I get a new one every few months. Usually at my every other year full body scan I get the hand wave, looks good dismissed. This year I could have as well but I had a spot on my leg that was in just the wrong place. It was constantly aggravated. 

My dermatologist was pretty sure it was nothing, but spots that don't heal are an issue. So was it not healing because of where it was located so it was always sore, or was it always sore and that's why it was so noticeable?  The biopsy came back that it wasn't a big deal. Just doctor cost, extraction cost, lab cost.

Pretty much the same as when I had the random bleeding in February. Initial doctor visit, specialist doctor, biopsy, lab, ultrasound. It's nothing, your uterus is just old and shriveling up. It's normal. 

 It's frustrating.

I mean, I can logic it out and say,  it's better to know for sure. Both of those things were nothing but if they had been something the leading contender was cancer so it's for sure best to know. But...

It's a hard adjustment. This new/older body. I've done a lot to make sure it is healthy and lasts for another 46 years. But I can't stop the age thing. I can't make it revert back to the easy bounce back from injury and illness 30 year old body. I can't banish the arthritis (hello new house) or the loss in muscle tone or the loss in flexibility. I can just keep doing what I'm doing to hold things in check.

And sometimes that means expensive doctor's visits. And starting to think about health insurance and is this the year we have to go to a more expensive plan and start assuming we will be doing more visits?

And the final question...

Why does this happen?

Remember when we were younger and we'd mock our parents and grandparents for reaching that point where conversations seemed to revolve around their health issues? How we swore that would never be us? And now it is? Ugh, of all the things that make me feel old lately that could be the number one thing!

So a week on the theme of age. I think this was the best place to start. And maybe finish. And maybe a blog in-between as well. I mean this heat...it's so hard to deal with, makes my joints so sore doncha know...