This started last August. I was notified Medicare has a yearly exam requirement and it was time to get mine. My doctor decided I needed a stress test. In September I visited a clinic to have the test. I was told this would involve about an hour on a treadmill. I let the nurse know I had bad knees, she said that won’t be a problem. Completed the stress test and yes, I am very out of shape. The next week my knees throbbed. I lived on OTC pain relievers for that week. In October I had an mammogram for a lump in my chest. I was diagnosed with gynecomastia, I am growing a boob. My nipple area was bruised for a week. In November I got my first of 2 shingles vaccine. It hit both my wife and I like a ton of bricks. In January it was time for a colonoscopy, I have issues with the anesthesia they use. Felt pretty bad for a couple days afterwards. Yesterday got my second shingles vaccine, this hit worse than the first. My arm hurts and is swollen, headache that won’t go away and can’t sleep. Hopefully nothing else will be needed in the near future. Next year we are going to Kenya for a photographic safari, we have a list of vaccines we will need. Definitely not looking forward to those.
Congrats on getting all those tests done. As bad as doing those tests was, it would far worse to get shingles etc. so pat yourself on the back and enjoy your trip to Africa knowing you’re prepared for whatever you get exposed to there.
I might have blown off the shingles vaccine but I caught it 10 years ago. It almost ruined our scheduled trip to New Zealand.
Wait, what? Medicare has a yearly exam requirement?
I’ve been on Medicare for 18 years and this is the first I’ve heard of it.
It may be their medicare supplement insurance that has that requirement, although I haven’t heard of that either. The only thing that keeps me on the annual physical regimen (regular physical, no stress test) is that my doc won’t renew my meds without it.
I’m pretty lucky, things like vaccines and the anesthetic they use for colonoscopy don’t seem to bother me. However, if I had to spend an hour moving on a treadmill, at whatever speed, my knees too would ache for a couple of days, although I don’t know if I would need pain killers.
Sounds like a Medicare Advantage plan.
And I’ve never heard of a stress test that requires an hour on a treadmill.
mmm
They told me it would take “about an hour,” but it turned out that included prep time, and they anticipated that I’d be actually on the treadmill for about 15 minutes. That’s actually a long time for someone who isn’t accustomed to running, and if you have arthritic knees to boot, I’ll bet it would put you in a good amount of pain for quite a while.
My own stress test turned out to be about 5 minutes on the treadmill; the tech kept asking how I felt and I kept saying I was fine. He finally had me stop and went to get a doctor, who discontinued the test because I was having so much afib they were afraid I’d pass out. But I felt fine.
I recall a sobering statistic that in about 25% of cases the first symptom of heart disease is sudden death.
I can’t 100% vouch for the accuracy of my memory or of the article, but IIRC it was in a publication by and for medical pros. Not some breathless clickbait article; I don’t read that garbage.
My dad was 56 years old with no history of heart problems. He was in perfect health, ideal weight, very active. He didn’t wake up one morning due to heart disease.
I was 60 when I began having severe chest pain. Because I didn’t die, I thought it was GERD or something. Turns out it was unstable angina and one of the pain events was actually a small heart attack. Got a stent put in and I’m fine now.
I felt nothing after the first round of the shingles vaccine. But WOW the second shot knocked me out for a day. I was dizzy, foggy feeling and really tired. I left work, went home and slept for 3 hours.
I skipped the doctor until last year…turned 67 or so, never needed one, nothing ever to complain about except dental work…got the shingles shot (yeah, really funky 2nd shot), then a flu shot, pneumonia shot…I guess another covid shot soon…doc wants me to update tetanus shot too.
Got my first colonoscopy, 2 months ago, I was worried, due to semi bad diet for years, but…all good and clear.
Just had double genetic inguinal hernia fixed a few days ago, first real surgery.
Kinda weird procedure, but good docs and they made sure I was not going to croak on the table…(EKG) says Im ok. I was asked multiple times what I was there for, I figure its to avoid doing the wrong operation on the wrong person!! And the mounds of paperwork!!!
I skipped the pain prescription as getting constipated after abdominal work can be really bad. Im sore, but back to 60% activity after a few days . I have daily light chores around the grounds here.
The weirdest?? Major bruising on the privates!! Tiger stripes!! I mean, its pretty funny…
Got all kinds of other bruising as well where they went in through belly button…
Anyways, I think people like me postpone these things, both for financial reasons, feeling ok for years, and perhaps fear of doctors doing unnecessary procedures.
edit propofol for hernia, out cold. Colonoscopy, half awake watching the screen as doc zoomed some kind of race car camera around in there. I dont know what they gave me though.
You can always think about it this way (and I do, when this sort of thing happens to me), that no matter how annoying post-vaccine effects are, or pre/post colonoscopy stuff is, it’s still better than the alternative.
I mean, the first dose of the shingles vaccine definitely sucks. But having known a few people who have had shingles, that’s NOTHING compared to how terrible shingles apparently is. And I can’t imagine colon cancer is something you’d rather experience, than a once-a-decade episode of self-induced violent diarrhea and whatever anesthesia hangover you have.
(out of curiosity, what did they give you for your colonoscopy? My colonoscopy anesthesia experience with propofol was the absolute best one ever; nothing like the heavy-duty stuff they use for knee surgeries that makes me puky for a couple of days.)
I don’t think it’s a requirement so much as an automatically-approved procedure – Medicare will pay for this once per year, in a healthy patient, no specific symptoms needed. Most other procedures are only covered if a doctor orders them.
So I get automated reminders from my health plan about an annual physical.