The past two days I've noticed when accelerating the engine/car lurches, shifts hard, seems to miss shifts at times, the RPMs will almost redline when between sixty-seventy MPH. This has been intermittently occurring over the past few months but would occur at "in-town" speeds and there was never this issue of RPM's running almost to the red zone constantly. All that would happen is the traction warning would appear in the dash and for a half-second, the automatic transmission would grab the intended gear. By no means am I knowledgeable around vehicles par the most basic of the basics but from what I've read through Google it sounds like my transmission is going bad or already shot? Anyone with any experience with this? I would greatly appreciate any and all input. Should I be driving it at all? Is it miles from leaving me stranded?
P.S. I did go through the steps via the handbook on how to check the transmission fluid which did appear to be low, I filled it up to the recommended amount and drove twenty miles give or take and the issue persisted. 180,000 miles on her and is badly in need of an oil change? Could that have anything to do with it? Anything I can check/do in my driveway per se? Kinda freaking out since this my Daily Driver here in Iowa and not sure how best to proceed?
Thanks in advance!