A man says his girlfriend broke her arm in a bike accident while drunk and now needs a minor surgery.

He already rescheduled an important business trip once to be there, but when the surgery was moved to the exact same date, he faced a tough choice: attend the procedure or prioritize a career opportunity that pays most of their bills.

Read on for the story.

AITA for missing my girlfriend’s minor surgery for an important business trip?

My girlfriend of two years (37F) decided to ride her bike while drunk last weekend, got into an accident and broke her arm.

It’s (by any measure) a minor break and it requires a (by any measure) minor surgery to fix it.

I’ve been very supportive and very nice to her the last few days, even though I’m really (more than a bit) mad at her for riding her bike while drunk.

Understandable.

She is having the surgery next week. I have a business trip coming up next week, which I’ve already rescheduled to avoid going away during the surgery.

But the surgery date has now changed to the exact date I rescheduled my business trip to.

She really wants me to stay for the surgery, and of course I want to, but this is a very important trip and my job pays for the vast majority of our expenses. Sometimes I feel like she has no respect for that.

That’s quite the pickle.

If I cancel or reschedule the trip again, it will really negatively effect my reputation at work and will be a big missed opportunity.

If it were another circumstance, like a totally unpreventable accident or a more serious illness of course I would make every effort to be there.

But saying to my colleagues “sorry, my girlfriend rode her bike drunk and broke her arm so I can’t go to the very important meeting” doesn’t seem like a good look.

Nope, not at all.

She’s really making me feel bad about it.

AITA for thinking, as a 37yo adult, she should live with the consequences of her stupid action and not make me feel bad about it and jeopardize my job and our overall well-being?

This one is a bit of a mixed bag. Reddit largely sided with him—skipping a critical work trip over a minor, self-inflicted injury isn’t reasonable.

However, being present for major medical events is important.

This person says no one is really a jerk here…

This person says both NTA and YTA.

And this person says he’s right, but it’s complicated.

Breaking an arm hurts, but breaking your career over it hurts more.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.