Carazzie's knee surgey went fine today!

[Nails]

She's ok and there weren't any problems. She had arthroscopic day surgery at Baylor in Plano off George Bush and Preston. When we were checking in this morning the lady said that the fee for the hospital rooms was $14,000 dollars. Twice, she said that included the nurses, as if that justifies an outpatient OR and recovery room used two hours. This doesn't include meat cutter or gas passer fees either.

[trickyrix]

Glad to hear everything went well!

But... jeeeeez, for 14-grand she could stuff a V8 into that NB...

[cam76034]

Wow Did you ask about the parking lot special?

[Nails]

Excellent point TR! They didn't have a parking lot special but parking was free in the garage. She had insurance cover it.

[smartmx5]

$14K for arthroscopy? Both knees? I bet your insurance only pays around $5K if not less. I had it done several years back. Best thing I could have ever done. Glad she is OK!!

[Nails]

One knee. 14k for the room only. The cutter and gasser will cost extra.



FOURTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR TWO ROOMS ONE HOUR EACH.

If your annual income is 42K and you don't have insurance you can piss away one third of your yearly pay for JUST THE RENT to have your knee worked on for an hour.

Now think of how many folks that haven't any insurance and make less than twenty one dollars an hour, for six hundred and sixty six hours.

[Nexus Flux]

Glad everything went OK

[MiataMike]

Glad all is well. Typically the hospitals jack up the price of the services because it takes the Insurance companies so long to pay up. Just think its like $25+ for one asprin when you can buy an entire bottle at CVS for like $3... Not really sure how thats not insurance fraud....

[creek]

I wonder why the president keeps talking about health care reform? I had my stint placed at Baylor last month.

[cArAzzIE]

All I can really say is OUCH. Meds take the edge off...but one wrong move and OUCH! So here it is 3 am and I am wide awake.

Financially, my part is
20% of facility fee
20% of surgeon fee
20% of anesthesiologist fee

Got it done pretty quick once I decided to do it, so I guess thats good in comparison to socialized medicine in Canada...sounds like it could take over a year to have this done since I was not an emergency.

No idea what this is all going to come to $$. But I am expecting NO MORE PAIN and to be able to get fit again. If thats the case, worth every penny, every second of pain.

Cheapest thing was preop testing which I did at my primary care physician...

$30 - Cannot say much for their equipment...old and aging...took what felt like an eternity to get the EKG machine working, which made me wonder how well it did the job.

Love my surgeon and people at the hospital telling me he is one of the best and acts like a regular guy, and the anesthesiologist was able to do my one and only request...DO NOT WAKE ME UNTIL THE BREATHING TUBE IS OUT...not fun waking up in the OR while they are "finishing up"...

But it took the recovery nurse a long time to get the pain under control. The hydrocodone script is a good one...but cannot seem to sleep...didnt have any problem this afternoon, I guess the anesthesia was still working.

Thanks for the well wishes, in a few weeks I should be able to enjoy getting out more, and going to the GTGs, and even driving...clutch leg...had been increasingly painful to drive. I have big expectations after all this :)

Lots of gratitude to Nails for waiting on me hand and foot through all this. I'm as stubborn and independent as they come... hard for me to ask/accept help.

Time to pop a pill, shut this down, and TRY to go to sleep...

[channelmaniac]

Poor Nails...

Won't be able to outrun you any more.



Get well soon! We'll have to plan a weekend drive to Clark's BBQ in Tioga for when you can use that clutch leg again.

[CarCar]

Glad to hear you are doing well.

[black roadster]

The reason costs are so high is to cover the other uninsured patients. Don't get me started on all the Medicare patients which cost the hospital money as the government does not pay actual costs like insurance companies do. Then their is the hassle of getting money from the insurance companies. Insurance collection is a major cost to medical facilities as insurance companies typically deny most claims causing additional time and paper work.

[onething]

Get well soon. I've known several who've had this recently and they were all glad after the fact.

[cArAzzIE]

Mmmm feelin' groovy! Feelin' NO pain for now!

Hopefully I'll be cleared to drive after Wednesday...that's practically a week...I am looking forward to getting the ding in my hood fixed at TtT's!

[Keifersmith]

Glad to hear that you're doing well. what all did they wind up doing? how long will you be on crutches?

Had my knee surgery beginning of May. I'm to the point now that it was definitely worth it. I still occasionally catch myself walking with just a little bit of a limp and have to remind myself that it doesn't hurt anymore

[cArAzzIE]

Nails suggested I post these...

You can't really tell what they are other than they are my knee!

He also did a lateral release which isn't shown.


Here they are, basically "before and after" pictures:
(nothing gory like Jeff_Man's accident pictures)

Knee surgery pictures