Blog hiatus

I took a blog hiatus while I went and got an ACL reconstruction last week. Unbelievable! I mean, everyone I have talked to that got this same procedure the old way has a completely different experience. My experience: 4 hours in a private office, two days on my back in the CPM machine, walking on it within 5 days, ascending stairs and walking slowly 1 weeks later, never took anything stronger than Celebrex for inflammation and Tylenol for a headache.

• Different patient, same surgeon, 20 years ago: 5 days in the hospital, 2 weeks on crutches, plenty of drugs, God knows how much it cost both in terms of the direct costs and the lost time.
• Different patient, different surgeon, 15 years ago: laid his knee open like a gutted fish, plenty of drugs, disregarded the CPM, had a repeat surgery 18 months later (no guarantee I won't be in the same boat, though).

A coworker told me that the cryo cuff and the CPM were the kinds of technology that drive up health care costs. Meanwhile, he insists that his 5 children which the rest of us subsidize require 12 doctor's office visits per year. I think he would still be better off with catastrophic insurance with a high deductible: it would cost more out of pocket, but he wouldn't have as much taken out of his paycheck. He disagrees: apparently, his desire to eat poorly (lots of high-fat foods), to refuse to exercise, and to make up for it with Lipitor trumps my desire to keep my own money.

The catastophic insurance would definitely have benefitted me, since I have only been to the hospital twice in the past 10 years. Everything else I could definitely have been money ahead to pay out of pocket vs. having the monthly premiums sucked out of my paycheck to subsidize my co-workers, most of whom pursue a much less healthy lifestyle than I do. Many of them drank heavily in their youth, consider softball to be exercise, and now have adult diabetes, its side effects, and other problems as a result of their choices.

Back to soccer this next spring, I hope!