Don't be cheap

This is part of an ongoing series of posts on what I have learned from an ongoing, chronic knee problem. This post describes how I injured my knee and has links to the posts I have written about other lessons I have learned.

A bit of background: I am a frugal person. I’m always looking to save money and avoid spending unnecessary money. Recently, I’ve actually reigned in my frugality a bit, but five years ago when I tore my ACL I was still near peak frugality.

I remember thinking about getting more opinions from surgeons at other medical institutions (and hence outside my insurance) about my knee, but I didn’t pursue it because I didn’t want to pay out of pocket for the consultations. We’re not talking thousands of dollars - I think each second opinion appointment would have cost around $200. I remember thinking “I can read medical papers too, I’ll just do a bunch of reading and research on my own instead”.

(To be clear, there is a decent chance the second opinions would have encouraged me to get the surgery as well, but at least they might have encouraged me to consider a different graft type.)

Post-surgery, during my physical therapy, I was pretty unhappy with the quality of the physical therapists in my insurance, and I stuck with it for almost a year before finally acknowledging that I needed to find a better physical therapist, even if it cost me more, if I was ever going to recover from my surgery and complications.

So, my advice to anyone considering a major surgery is: don’t be cheap! It’s important to realize that you need help to make a good decision (see my post about knowing when to ask for help), and you need to being willing to spend a little money to give you access to the advice you need. Saving a few hundred dollars by convincing yourself you don’t need a second opinion is just not worth it when you consider the cost of a poorly executed surgery or physical therapy program. And I don’t just mean the financial cost - think about the time and life impact cost of a bad surgery outcome.