It’s official, my knee will need surgery. I have torn the cartilage and will need arthroscopic surgery to repair it (Randal diagnosed me correctly over the internet!). I saw a sports doctor today, had x-rays and have an appointment to see an orthopedic surgeon Monday week, next week I have a week at the snow watching everyone else have fun, and in the words of the doctor when I asked if I could snowboard if I wanted to, ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Now if you think that is bad, it gets worse. I don’t have private health insurance, taking the gamble many years ago that nothing bad (that I couldn’t sue someone else to pay for, i.e. if injured at work workers comp pays, in a car accident the road accident insurance would cover it, etc) would ever happen to me. I figured if the illness was life threatening I would be ok in the public health system. Well, the waiting list for knee surgery is 2 years! 18 months if a lot of old people waiting for joint replacement surgery died suddenly!! (No disrespect to old folk, I hope to be one one day).
So there is only one option, I dip into the savings I have from self insuring for all these years and pay for it myself. About $6000 is the going rate for knee surgery. I can have the surgery in about 2 weeks (sooner if I wasn’t going to the snow to watch other people having fun, do I sound bitter about that?). To put that in terms boaties will understand, that’s a spanking new 4 stroke high thrust 20hp outboard! I wonder how the boat will go with only one outboard? Kidding, we will still have 2 motors.
Actually on that note, I want to say how lucky we are. Not only are we building a beautiful catamaran and have the money and the time to do so, but that we live in a country and enjoy a quality of life that allows us not only the option to afford such surgery when things go wrong, but a system that has the facilities to provide the medical attention we need. Some people live in places that don’t have hospitals, or doctors and must live with the pain or worse. No options. So whilst I joke about the bad luck, I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people. Life doesn’t get much better. Except perhaps when we finish the boat and push off (nah, I am really enjoying the build anyway so I don’t want to skip any of the stages….well, maybe the sanding).