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The RSI case of Sanjeev Sabhlok: description of the problem and its treatment.

Section 4. Financial costs

Going down the path of looking at costs can be seriously aggravating. Already suffering from enormous pain and other related issues, bothering about costs of treatment can simply make the whole experience even more painful.

In my particular case, there were two kinds of costs, as in all economic analysis. The direct costs of treatment, equipment, books, etc., and the opportunity costs of earnings lost.

Given that Australia has a Medicare system that has partially borne these costs, I still estimate that my out-of-pocket expenses so far have been in the range of $5,000 a year, slighly more in the first two years here than in the third, because initially I just kept buying about every thing that anyone could possibly dream of as contributing to a cure - TENS and ultrasound machines, electrical massagers, all kinds of creams and gels, potions, chinese medicines, payment for X-rays, EMG, MRS scans, computer upgrade to use Dragon Naturally Speaking, purchase of the software, headset, splints, etc. I was also seeing a miscellaneous assortment of therapists twice or thrice a week.

I could add the opportunity costs of the thousands of hours of time lost, which would have been fruitfully spent on various productive things, and the part-time work I had to give up in USA.

In the end, cost is irrelevant. The issue is elimination of the problem.

Of course, this huge financial cost could have been significantly minimised if the first doctor, or the second, or the third, or the fourth, or the … eleventh doctor I saw knew what I know today. Unfortunately, it was not to be, and in probably many more thousands of cases of a similar problem in the future, it would not be so since medical science just does not appreciate this problem and is not likely to go down the path of my learnings for many more years to come.