My wife only even went through with it because I forced her to; she gets really pissed and wants to tell them to fuck off, she'll go home and die rather than pay 500 bucks for 10 minutes. Of course, this is chump change. We're now scheduled for a nephrologist an hour away Monday. My wife starts speaking up and saying we can't afford that and they say stupid things like "You can't put this off."

One NP even seriously said "Could you talk to your parents and see if they could help you out financially" to which my wife said that despite the fact that two years ago our parents were making 250K and 120K respectively (both off of single incomes with stay at home moms as well), both of them are now out of their jobs. But jesus christ, WHY the HELL isn't anyone in these damn hospitals saying whats so fucking obvious?! If they want to diagnose her with Chronic Kidney Disease, which they do, they should say: You have CKD. You can either suffer or go into more debt that you will ever repay. Welcome to fucking america.

Sheesh, too bad we didn't have the PRESCIENCE (I'm studying for the GRE) to get health insurance. We should have gone out and gotten some good old health insurance. I mean, given my wife's record of health, it would only cost us -wait, no, it wouldn't actually have a price tag. She is 100% fully uninsurable. Of course, if we hadn't been so lazy maybe we'd have one of those full time jobs with benefits that america is so famous for. You know, like the benefits I got for working 54 hours per week for the past 2 years before moving 60 miles for school and applying to about 10 places between the two of us without success. Oh Wait, I didn't have any fucking benefits at 54 hours per week.

As I Type this, RIGHT NOW, my wife is behind me talking about committing suicide because she doesn't want to go into debt to deal with this and she's just sick of the chronic pain. "You can't get better in America, because even if you are getting treated, the debt you incur gives so much stress your body can't heal," she just said. Good point.

Fuck. this.

EDIT:

thanks for the support folks. I'm a super optimist, and my wife is a super pessimist (and also diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome and suffering from PTSD) and together we tend to get things taken care of. Practical advice is very helpful, and if you think you know what we are going through, you probably do, so don't hesitate to give advice.

EDIT: If you could hear her playing Chopin's first Ballade right now you'd be even more sympathetic. Wait till she gets to the third. Also, after tonight when she tells me I spend too much time on Dkos I'll remind her how helpful and caring you all are. Thanks a lot guys.

MAJOR EDIT:

Lots of you are very smart. recognizing this I have a question.

My wife says her chart had these problems:

Potassium low

Chlorine High

Kreatenine (or something) was somehow messed up - and apparently this was like off the charts and significantly surprising.

and all the proteins they check for were abnormal or something.

Does this mean anything to any of you? If so, my wife was just curious if anyone knows if this points to ESRD or something else or whatever.

Also, I'm very interested in your advice, and if I don't respond it's because I'm responding somewhere else on the thread.

Edit: one last thought. One huge symptom my wife has had - it came on before the passing out and throwing up— is extreme and sudden numbness in her extremities. She says it feels like when your foot falls asleep and then is waking up, painful and confusing to the nerves. It makes her drop stuff and fall down. Do you think this is related? It happens a lot when she stands up.

Lastly, don't hesitate to use GRE vocabulary words in your replies, because I'm taking the test tuesday. (:

EDIT: Saturday, 1:05 PM. I can't help bud add this. My wife woke up late today, feeling really sick, and she expresses that she's feeling depressed because she wants to get a job and she's afraid that this will just make it harder for her to work.... lazy liberals.