I have basically been slumming it since discovering LL in March last year in order to save the 20k for externals in Kurgan, Russia.
At the time I actually already had about 20k but I told myself"I am not going to cripple myself for 9 months and possibly still be crippled after(at the time I thought after 9 months if you did everything right you were guaranteed to go back to near 100% capability in your legs) and come back to my regular life and be broke. So I pretended I had no money and started working like crazy and saved up like another 23k.
My job is a service industry based job. It pays decent but it is not good so I mostly ignored the internal lengthening topics.
Now I am scheduled to go to Russia in about 3 weeks and I have just realized. I am planning on being all hermit like in Russia for 8 to 9 months in which I will earn no income and basically waste away half my savings.
If I do internals, I can postpone my surgery for another 3 months while I do physiotherapy, lengthen with Guichet, do more physiotherapy. maybe take three months off work and then resume life sort of. I know 43K is not enough for Guichet but I am thinking of getting a loan for about 25k.
I think most people who are considering externals are in similar situations like mine. Maybe you don't have such a great job that you can just throw down 60-70 k for internals. However, the discipline required to gather the money for external LL when you are starting out at 0 is pretty much half the battle. The rest is figuring out how to make it happen.
DISADVANTAGES
Anyways, Here are the downsides to my situation:
1. Postponing the surgery. (I am scared that I may be subconsciously putting off/stalling the surgery because naturally I am afraid of getting my legs broken.
2. It requires a personal loan which will have an above market interest rate.
3. It basically dissolves my plan to have a 20k financial cushion for when I resume life post surgery.
Someone with a similar income bracket is having the same obstacle/limitations as me so maybe you can relate.
ADVANTAGES/BENEFITS
Here is why I am considering it anyways:
1. Amount of time spent away. I was planning on being away from my life for 9 months anyways. Anyway you look at it, it will basically take the same amount of time for me to fully resume life(I mean life not 100% of leg use. I read my first internal diaries this morning so I still have some research to do).
2. Comfort. No external means your time lengthening/ consolidating wont suck as much.
3. Boredom/Loneliness. Most of us considering externals are not planning on letting anyone know so that means 6+ months of being away from our friends and families. By reading diaries, we know this and the boredom are the hardest. Followed by pain.
4. Finances. Sure you have to pay back a loan with interest on top of that but if you are able to keep your job and you have strong financial dicipline(I know most people will not appreciate hearing this but if you don't have financial discipline, you should not even do externals), paying back the loan with interest in basically the same as not working for almost a year. In my case a 25k loan over 24 months means 12.5k a year with interest on top of that. About 1100 or 1200 a month, maybe a little bit more. Very hard for me to pay but definitely doable with some discipline and sacrifice.
For those who have gone to Guichet, is my thinking realistic and practical, or should I just suck it up and got to Russia?
Guichet costs based on current exchange rate.
50k USD for surgery
800 USD to 1500 USD for flat in Milan. Based on craigslist ads.
Other costs. Based on Shyshy diary he spent about 2500 EUR for miscellaneous cost including meals, tests and a excersice bike. I will assume a worst case scenario of 4000 USD.
Perop costs. 2500 USD. Worst case scenario based on Shyshy dairy.
I hope I am correct with my assessments and not just deluding myself. Anyone with internal nail experience can criticise/ reinforce my arguments?
Thanks.
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Topic: For those who think they cannot afford internals and are settling for externals. (Read 1866 times)