Half a Year after Early Retirement

For the past one month, I have been busying on sending my father for medical follow up. We had spent lots of time on getting information on his illness and the doctor suggested for an operation after 1.5 months of medication and following up.

The medical cost is huge while my father doesn't have any H&S insurance coverage. We have to pay the whole sum by ourselves. Another issue is that the said operation is an major operation. His old age has make us worry about whether he could manage it or not. In order to have a clearer picture, we decide to seek for 2nd opinion. Therefore, I sent him to another hospital to seek for advise from another specialist doctor.

After investigating his condition, the doctor also suggested an operation. Beside this, the doctor detected more problems which were not found by the previous doctor. The doctor suggested for an immediate operation as the condition was quite severe. The doctor could not understand the reason about the previous doctor action on not having immediate operation but only medication while only suggested for an operation after 1.5 months. Well, we couldn't  comment on this as we are not doctors. We feel fortune since we decide to seek for 2nd opinion.

The operation commence two days later and my father had discharged six days after. Of course, the road of recovery is still long as series subsequent medical follow-up is required.

From this incident, I realize the following:

1. Always have your H&S insurance ready. You don't have any idea when you will need it. The medical cost nowadays is just too huge and not everyone could afford it. Get your H&S insurance when you are healthy. Your premium will be a lot cheaper. If not, you might not even able to get one if your health condition is getting worse.
2. Always seek for 2nd expert advise for major issues. Have a cross reference on their comments to help you to make a better decision.
3. Since I have retired early, I have more time to help my parents for their medical follow up. I even look at it in another angle, on the other hand, I have more time to get around with them before it is too late.