Healhcare in Malaysia: ankle woes, part two

As you may recall in Part One, I shared the cost incurred for going to the emergency room to have my ankle looked at, and estimated that the total out of pocket would be about USD$100.

Boy was I wrong!

You see, on Monday I went to see the orthopedic specialist... okay so he took a look at the Xray and dismissed the chip, saying it was an old injury, based on the fact that I wasn’t in pain where the chip was. He poked my foot here and there, and declared I probably had partially torn ligaments, and prescribed an ankle brace and continued use of the crutches.

I musta spent like 5 minutes total in his office.

Specialist consultation: RM 120
Ankle brace: RM215
Refitting the crutches with new foam thingys: RM35

Total: RM 370 (= USD$ 115)

Total $ spent on my ankle at that hospital = about USD$210

... and yet just a few hours later, I was off the crutches and brace!

On one hand I’m kicking myself for having thrown away that extra $ at the hospital, but on the other hand I really did need to know that I wasn’t sporting a chipped bone... knowing I was only dealing with hurt ligaments, I gave myself the green light to explore other therapies. And the opportunity to visit my traditional massage torturer presented itself only when I was done with the hospital. Things just worked out the way they did. Bottom line, YC worked her magic on me. THAT was RM60 very well spent!