Thursday, April 5, 2012

Day 6 Update (Surgery Tomorrow)!

I'm honestly exhausted from this process, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet.  I may update again later tonight after a nap.

I just wanted to update the top contributors list to give them major props.


Updated List of Top Contributors (Triple Digit Donations)!

Jorge Salhuana
David Wu
Alexander Holliday
Siby Spurgeon
Alvin Lin
Jonathan Ko
Kyuha Lee


My Struggle with Big Hospital Greed

Also, I wanted to inform everyone that I have defeated Goliath aka Methodist Richardson.  Not only did they concede to matching Medical Center of Plano's price but I declined their offer.  It was insulting and way too late.  (I later said if they agreed to half what Medical Center of Plano was offering I might considered it, of course there was no callback.)

Even better, Dr. Hanssen suggested I do it in The Colony at a surgical center where there would be a much smaller chance of infection and I wouldn't have to show up 2 hrs ahead of time.  Instead I would just show up 1 hr ahead of time and there wouldn't be risk of being bumped off the schedule if an emergency surgery needed to be done in our operating room at a large hospital.  Also, Samantha from The Cole Clinic got them to do it for cheaper than Medical Center of Plano.


New (Lower) Cost for Outpatient Surgery (aka All That Wrangling Paid Off)

The new cost of my surgery will be around $3,200 though I don't have an exact cost yet.  Much more reasonable than Methodist's final offer $7,210.00 (This is hospital fees alone not counting everything else; this was before they offered their lowball offer.)


New (Tentative) Goal Fund Amount = $3,150

Current Repair Kyle's Achilles Fund Amount * = $1,619.47  $1725.38 (as of 7:45 PM)

(*This amount does not include the pledges I received from friends telling me they will donate in the indeterminate future, nor does it include the two checks that are being sent to me in the mail from family friends; they would rather not have their contribution be deducted by PayPal ($0.30 + 2.8%).
This is the amount that's currently actually in the PayPal account.)


Do You Want a Refund or Regret Making a Donation?  No Biggie.

I also wanted to say that if you have made a contribution but suddenly have pangs of regret or suddenly have hit a rough patch yourself and regret it — no problem!  (It's not mine anyways, I'm just borrowing the money until it passes through my virtual hands and goes to the surgical center, the orthopedic surgeon, or the anesthesiologist.)

Let me know ASAP and I can still issue a refund from the PayPal account back to your credit card or bank account.  PayPal may keep that small deduction though, I'm not sure.  Again let me know immediately before I spend this $ on Friday for my surgery.  (My dad told me he would cover the costs of the facility fee if I will pay the surgeon and the anesthesiologist.  The good news is that I am now going to Faith Surgical Center in The Colony, which is cheaper than any hospital, more on that below.)  If, after this period, you still want a refund or regret helping me out, I will see what I can do and maybe I can pay you from my own bank account.


The Flip Side

It's not all sunshine and rainbows, Dr. Hanssen warned me that I would have a 20% decrease in strength and range of motion =( after the surgery, but we'll see about that.  You can probably tell by now that I don't take no for an answer.  ;-)

He also was kind of stern asking why I waited so many weeks to get the surgery.  He said not only has the tendon contracted but there's a risk of it turning into a gelatinous MESS!  So yes he stressed the importance of having this surgery basically YESTERDAY.  So I'm going under the knife tomorrow at 1 PM.

I sincerely hope all goes well and I regain 100% of my strength.  I need all of it!


Life Post-Surgery

I asked if I can ever go back to squats and power cleans etc. and he gave me that look.  He said as an orthopedic surgeon he can never recommend anyone to do that, period.  He said that those movements are good for building muscle but in the long run will lead to lumbar problems and other issues.

Wow.  Basically he's saying Olympic Lifting, Powerlifting, CrossFit, and the like should be avoided altogether whether you have an injury or not!  I'm going to ask him what the f*ck he does as exercise/sports/hobby then on my follow-up visit.  (I'm going to be put in a splint then after a week of letting the swelling go down and then I need to go back to get a cast put on.  Then it's a 3 - 4 month recovery period – that notary guy at the bank scared me and said it's 9 months bc some NFL player was out for 9 after he ruptured his Achilles!)


Food is a Joy Again

Well, after securing an affordable surgery for tomorrow I finally could breathe a sigh of relief!

Today was the first time I ate a proper meal and enjoyed it.  I ate at IHOP and then I went and had beef noodle soup, fried tonkatsu (fried pork chop), and a sweet soya bean custard and lotus soup at a Taiwanese restaurant called Shabu Shabu in Plano haha.  It's time I start enjoying food again.  Also, if I'm fasting until 1 PM tomorrow, I need to get it in today!


Is My Doc a Junkie? (J/K!)

Wish me luck.  I'll admit, surgery honestly scares me, but Dr. Christopher Hanssen at the Cole Clinic seems like a stand-up, competent surgeon.

He told me he liked Organic Chemistry because it allowed him to learn how to make heroin:  "The first lesson in nerd school is how to make heroin!"

Sweetness.

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