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Time is money, people.

Ever wondered what the point of working hard in school was? All those years of doing endless class assignments, studying for exams, saying no to a social life while all your friends were out under-age drinking and partying hard at the local pub, doing extra prep over the weekends?

Let me tell you.

It was so you could get top marks to gain acceptance into medical school, spend the next 5 or so years of your life constantly studying and extending your hermit-like lifestyle solely so you could become an orthopaedic knee surgeon – and here’s the kicker (pun intended) – be able to charge an hourly rate of around $2000.00 an hour pro rata. How’s that sound?

I took Son #2 to see one today. I reckon he and I were in his office for all of 5 minutes. Tops. And that’s including the one minute we sat there waiting for him to actually come in and talk to us. In the remaining 4 minutes he looked at the MRI scans of M’s knee, rolled his eyes ever-so-slightly at the St John Ambulance ladies initial thoughts over his injury being a ‘possible fracture’ and pulled, poked and prodded M’s knee to see if anything still hurt.

The saving grace for this particular surgeon was that he was very, very nice and explained everything in layman’s terms so we could easily understand (and so he freaking well SHOULD with the amount of money I was paying him!). The upshot of it all is that his knee seems fine, he can slowly start to build up training on it again and if it’s still feeling okay he can resume playing rugby in about 4 weeks.

I may have recovered from the amount of the bill by then.

Have YOU ever seen a specialist? What would their actual hourly rate work out to? Maybe we should convince more of our kids to be doctors…


2 responses to “Time is money, people.”

  1. Groovy Grandma Avatar
    Groovy Grandma

    Its a hideous fact of life – they are just the same, over the ditch. It does help when you get good advice though, it would hurt a lot more if the information received was no good. guess that is why Insurance Companies make so much money – to cover us for life's emergencies. Great the Son#2 is going to be OK as well

  2. What Sarah Did Next Avatar

    You're quite right, of course. And it made a great story for M to tell all his mates as well, so win-win!

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About Me

Hi, I’m Sarah!

Former wild-child of the 80’s, classic rock fan and loyal friend to a particularly awesome group of people. Forever planning to write more. Fervently wishes she lived at the beach. Loves the mighty All Blacks. Rather partial to a cheeky glass of red.

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