Saving Money on Your Surgery

Many people wonder how they can save money while preparing for a major surgery. When dealing with subluxing peroneal tendons, surgery is almost always the only option for permanent recovery. Here are my suggestions, especially for college students or those with bad/no insurance! Keep in mind that I'm not a doctor and these are only my suggestions after having gone through the surgery twice now (and both times as a student with bad insurance!)

• Do the surgery over some sort of break in school (my first surgery was over Thanksgiving break 2007, and my second one was over Christmas break 2011). For the first week or so you will be pretty much on bedrest.  If you do have any type on insurance, get your surgery done before August of that year. Or else wait for January. This will prevent your deductible from starting over mid-recovery, thus saving you a lot of money! 
• Pick a doctor/surgeon before seeing anyone else. Don't go to instacare. They will misdiagnose and charge you way too much. A general practitioner will just refer you to a specialist so that's not a good option either. Pick an ankle or sports medicine doctor. That way, the first visit can be treated as your initial visit, and you shouldn't need any other appointments before the surgery. 
• Tell the doctor's office that you are a college student and have bad or no insurance (over the phone before you go in to the office,) and see if they can do anything to help financially. Sometimes they give discounts to students and/or those without insurance.
• Go to a local thrift store and buy a set of crutches and possibly even a walking boot there (if you can find one in really good shape.) Then tell the doctor beforehand that you have those items so that they aren't charged to you. This will save hundreds of dollars. 
• When it comes to physical therapy, do the same thing, call ahead and tell them you are a student or that you don't have insurance and see if they have a special rate that they could give you. 
• Explain on your first physical therapy visit that you can't afford to keep coming to the office, and you want him to give you instructions and a theraband so that you can do all of your workouts at home. If you need exercise equipment for your physical therapy, look for used equipment on craigslist or ebay so that you don't have to go into the P.T. office to use it. But working out at home, you shouldn't need to see your physical therapist anymore. Maybe one last time just to see if it's healing correctly. By cutting your visits down from 8 or more to 1-2, you will save a lot!

I hope some of these tips are able to help someone out there who is considering this operation, but is really concerned about the costs associated with it!