One morning I woke up with elbow pain and a stiff neck. I figured, okay, I must’ve slept weird, it’ll pass. The doctor basically brushed me off and told me to wait it out. Then one of my knees started hurting. Then the other one. It got to the point where I could barely get out of bed because of the pain in both knees.
First thought: orthopedic doctor.
Public healthcare waiting times? Several months. I couldn’t wait that long, so I went private.
The orthopedist found joint effusion and told me it’s not his area – I need to see a rheumatologist. Public system waiting times? Even worse – half a year or more.
So I started going to private appointments. First visit, tests. Second visit – diagnosis: a serious rheumatic disease. Now the doctor wants to run further diagnostics, but of course through public system it’s basically inaccessible 🙂 Privately it costs a small fortune which I simply don’t have right now.
It makes me so frustrated and angry. I’m 23 years old I don’t have the financial means to afford proper treatment yet. And I can’t rely on financial support from my family either. I’m not coping emotionally with any of this. The illness, the broken healthcare system, the financial stress it’s all too much. Most days I wake up and start crying before I even get out of bed.
I feel completely overwhelmed and alone.
Please, if anyone’s been through something similar… how do you get through it?