Deb has been seeing an eye surgeon roughly even 2 weeks for the better part of a year..at least 9 months, maybe 10. The guy is a really good doctor, Deb and I feel very comfortable with his work, with his recommendations of what needs to be done to protect the cornea of her right eye. Furthermore, we simply like the guy...he isn't one of those doctors who walks into the room with an air of superiority because he has a few letters after his name, he isn't all uppity like that...just a down to earth guy who just happens to make a living doing eye surgeries. And beyond that, he is a very good person...very caring, very thoughtful, considerate. Deb and I don't have insurance...which really sucks when trying to recover from a major brain surgery (the big things were taken care of while we had insurance...just a lot of small, continual things that we have to fund out of our small pockets).
When Deb underwent the first eye surgery, in which a flap from her upper eyelid was attached to the inside of her lower eye lid to partially close the eye...the total bill was $1700 odd dollars. The doc wrote off all but $498 of it.
We saw him several, several times after that...and he simply counted it as part of the post operative follow up...no charge. Even though he has done several rounds of sutures to further close the eye, helped us through several rounds of eye infections..he charged nothing.
A couple months ago, we went in for another surgery....and he charged $138. We have seem him 4 times since then...and no charge. Two weeks ago, Deb under went another round of suturing..this time using a more permanent type of suture thread which was meant to last several months...well, Deb's body ate those sutures...totally dissolved them away...which wasn't supposed to happen.
Today, we saw the doc again and he was surprised to find the sutures gone (I carefully pulled out the remnants on Sunday) and he had his surgical staff schedule Deb for another procedure next Tuesday...he will be going in and doing another of the flappie surgeries...like the first one Deb had...the $1700 one. He instructed his surgical nurse to list this as a part of the post-operative follow up from the first procedure...in other words...he is not going to charge us a single cent for this upcoming $1700 procedure.
I am sure that some people become doctors because of the money and the social status it can bring...but not this guy. Now, I'm sure he makes a rather nice living as an eye surgeon....you should see the Mercedes he drives...very nice! But money is not what drives him, what gives him a feeling of achievement. If it were, Deb and I would have stacks of bills from his office...we have received only 2 during this whole time....and unlike other bills we owe, we aren't being nagged about these..."pay what you can, when you can" is the attitude his billing office has shown us.
Well, I guess that since I just subjected you to reading a rather long and boring pile of drivel, I should at least leave you with something for your troubles....
There is still goodness and kindess in the world.
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