Hey there,
Before getting into the big news of the week, here is a tasty story from the Taiwan News...Taiwan police find stolen scooter after 26 years. Pretty straight up reporting, but what caught my attention was that the woman who had her scooter returned thanked the officers that found it by buying them "crisp butter biscuits, a Dajia delicacy". I find it adorable that they include that fact in the article, and also need to get me some Dajia butter biscuits (as soon as I figure out where Dajia is) .
Have deservedly been touting how fortunate we are to be in Taiwan, especially this year, and so share this article from a writer for Bloomberg titled My Unusually Normal Life in Taiwan Amid the Global Pandemic. He hits on all of the things I have been relating in a professional journalist way and lays out plainly what real freedom looks like. On the heels of that article was this one that compares death rates from the virus to the US. In the Scandinavian countries, it is 10 times less while S. Korea, Liberia and Hong Kong are 60 times less. New Zealand was second best at 200 times less likely, but number one with a bell curve smashing 3,400 times less is good ol' Taiwan.
Mentioned last time that Taiwan had their first locally transmitted case in 253 days and shared some details about the lothario Eva Air pilot that caused it to happen. He was fined and fired, but the fallout for other cheating Eva Air pilots was severe as the airline investigated all of them and fired another one for breaking quarantine, having illicit affairs while under quarantine and swindling money out of several women. Salacious.
On the flip side, 2020 was the hottest year on record in Taiwan. I (and my balls) knew that already.
OK then...the big news is that yours truly has booked knee replacement surgery. Doing the right one on January 19th and if everything goes smoothly, lefty in April/May. Why now? First of all, it was time. I don't have the dates, but roughly 15 years ago and after 6 knee procedures, the doctor said that I'd need two new ones but that I should wait as long as possible. The reason was that the artificial knees only last so long and he gave some times like a device in a 70 year old person lasts 20 years while a 50 year old lasts 8 years on average. And that the replacement's replacement lasts only half as long as that, so it would behoove me to wait as long as I could stand it.
While the deterioration and pain level has increased over that time, it wasn't all at once and so I had just gotten used to it I suppose. Really, I wondered if it was truly bad or if I had a low pain tolerance and I tried to never complain. To quote one of Tommy Lasorda's favorite lines; never complain about your problems cause 98% of people don't care and the other 2% will be glad you have them. I usually only talked about it when someone saw me moving awkwardly and asked if I was OK.
I'm 55 now and agreed with my US doctor that it was time and had summer appointments scheduled with all the Seattle orthopedists, but those plans were obviously cancelled. People would ask me why I didn't do it here and answered with all the things you'd expect. Comfort with my own doctor, one that could speak English fluently, fear of universal health care and others I am forgetting. My guard has been dropping recently as my faith in the local way of doing things has been rising, and it is to the point where I see a curb coming up that I have to climb and dread the pain. We went to a Christmas party and I got up after dinner in my usual ugly way and this lady we know who has had some knee work done took notice. A week or so later she sends me a note saying she made me an appointment with her doctor, that she'd take me down and help with the language and that I could not say no. After a few hours of trying to think of ways to say no, I couldn't come up with any that were plausible.
This lady runs an antique concern here so will call her Antique Lady. She, Betty and I go for a 9:30 appointment last Monday. Have been to these hospital things here a few times and they all sorta look and operate the same. At first glance, there are a ton of people waiting and it gives off an appearance of chaos. It also doesn't feel as clean as Swedish Orthopedic Associates, which probably adds to my apprehension about doing anything medically related here. We wait 5-10 minutes and go into a smaller room where a 1/2 dozen of this particular doctor patients are waiting. Some are there for post-op check-ups, which we could tell by the 8 inch scars running down the front of their knees.
After a few minutes in there, the doc comes up and he asks a couple questions (in good English) and then sends me to x-ray. I know I am a soft Westerner when I laugh at the machines. I'm used to these gleaming ones that look like they came off of the Siemens factory floor the week before while the ones in here are vintage and think Trapper John and Hawkeye would look askance at them.
We go back to the doctor and wait for 10 minutes and go into his office where he brings up the x-rays.
Healthy knees should have a nice gap between the bones where cartilage cushions them, and you can see that on the outside of both that it is bone on bone. The little post-it note things are from previous surgeries. Apparently, there is no question in the doctors mind that these are candidates to go and he identified me as having stage 4 (of 4) arthritis. I did feel a little relief in being told that they are as bad as they feel and that not only am I not a wuss, but have suffered in heroic silence for decades. We have a 5 minute back and forth to answer some of our questions. I ask if they ever do two at the same time. Yes, but that he doesn't do them if the patient is one of two types of people; over 70 and Caucasians, with the reason being that they are more susceptible to having pulmonary embolisms. I appreciate him worrying about my (very white) whiteness, but his bluntness in stating the obvious that a major surgery could end catastrophically could use some sanding off the edges.
Another thing that came out of this meeting is that he has to order an XL knee that isn't normally on hand cause Caucasians have bigger bones in general. Yeah we do. I'm as comfortable with this as I'm gonna be and opt to have it done as soon as possible. The deal is to go in the night before and then stay for three more nights. They plan to have me putting weight on it that day, will have to use a walker for up to two weeks and then if all goes well rehabbing it, can do the other one 3 months later. I am fully aware that shit happens, but maybe when you see me this summer, I'll be a 1/2 inch taller and ready to kick your ass.
The last step was to go to the billing department. This is the part where they don't speak English, but I have two fierce women with me that do. Really, I didn't need to be in this meeting at all cause they all talked to each other and only looked at me occasionally in that way they do where they are saying something bad and look out of the corners of their eyes to see if I understood and was insulted.
With National Health Insurance, the procedure would total NT20,000 (US$700). Apparently that is for the used rusty knee cause then came the upgrades/add-ons. I have the brochures but have zero idea what they include...better shocks and struts I presume. I did understand that we can pay to get into a double room instead of a 4 person one for another US$100. Anyhoo, the final out of pocket cost off the showroom floor with all the bells and whistles is NT142,000 (about US$5,000), which we should be able to recoup a decent percentage of with our US health insurance. Seems cheap, no?
That's the skinny. If you think of something I should be asking, feel free to share, but appreciate you keeping any comments that would make me nervous to yourself as I am plenty of that already. Look forward to sharing my new giant scar(s) with you this summer.
Dragged
th stage
special order big knee
sticker shock/add ons
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