Last summer I began to feel weakness in my legs. By early fall the weakness had turned into terrible pain. My wife and I drove all over New Hampshire to see specialists to determine what was causing my pain. The following tests were done: X-Rays ,MRI, bone scan, CT scan, EMG. None of the tests revealed what the problem was.

I asked to be put into the local hospital to find out what was causing my pain. I was told by a doctor and a social worker that in New Hampshire you cannot be admitted to a hospital unless there was a diagnosis. People I knew recommended that I go to Boston or New York hospitals or the Mayo Clinic.

Meanwhile a new symptom developed. I began to fall. I fell 12 times and no longer could get up. I saw a pain specialist but falls continued. I fell in February and broke my ankle. Emergency services arrived and a fireman stepped on my toes and broke two of them.

However, I finally had a diagnosis – broken ankle. I was admitted to a local hospital, my illness was diagnosed, and drugs relieved the pain. After two and a half weeks, I was admitted into a rehab facility. I was told that my disease was rare and untreatable.

Getting into a rehab facility was difficult. One local place wanted a list of all my assets to be assigned to them. Two people, including a nurse, warned me to avoid another place because of its filth. I was warned that only the dead leave one place. One place said they only had room for me in a dementia ward.

I spent two and a half months in a local rehab place. I was told it was the best in the area. I must emphasize that the people who cared for me were kind, caring, professional, and I am grateful to them. However, there were too few of them.

The following conditions existed: I spent a lot of time in my own waste before help came, you could not sleep at night because of patients buzzing for help, there was only one doctor who was rarely there, dementia patients were mixed in with rehab patients, patients received limited activities , most of the day they had vacant stares, the facility was dirty and food quality uneven, e.g., shepherd’s pie had no meat in it, only corn and potatoes.

I received about 10 to 12 hours of therapy per week from outstanding therapists. I would lose my insurance without progress. I tried so hard that I tore my rotator cuff.

I met several people who ran out of insurance and went on Medicaid. My worst moment came when I was catheterized without a lubricant. I was released from the facility in May.

After release I received excellent therapy at home from a local provider. I went to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. I was examined by a national expert in neuromuscular disease.

I had been wrongly diagnosed in New Hampshire. Additional tests confirmed the new diagnosis. The leading lab in our state had misinterpreted a muscle biopsy. I had not been treated for the right disease for months.

I was given a new drug specific to my condition. I began to get better immediately. I “graduated” to out-patient therapy and went to a great new provider. On Aug. 31, I walked without a walker for the first time in eight months.

Nothing I heard in two Democratic debates had anything to do with my medical experience. I could not believe that what I experienced could exist in the year 2019. Does anyone in Concord know what really is happening?

Rick Sirvint lives in Rindge.