Mtg with surgeon

impactzone

I am meeting with Dr Warren at UCSF next week on the 27th regarding surgery on 1 liver met 2.9 X 1.9 on the right posterior lobe and possibly one other that is currently 4mm and indetermenent in the left robe. I had colostomy on 9/1 and will be starting Folfox + avastin soon. I wanted to meet with him for a 2nd opinion and then I also meet with George Foster at Stanford on the 28th. I am obviously stage 4 but want to get all my ducks in a row. What should I ask him? Any advice. I took all the notes regarding starting chemo now its what to ask the surgeons?
Thanks
Chip

taraHK

Excellent question. Of course, it depends what your personal concerns are, but my list might look something like this:
How long can I expect to be in hospital following surgery?
How long will recovery be? (before I can resume work, exercise, etc)?
What is the plan for pain relief after surgery (and/or when will I have an opportunity to meet with the anesthetist to discuss this)? (eg epidural vs. morphine etc)
Have you done many similar procedures? (this one might have to be phrased more diplomatically!)
What kind of success rate do you have or do others have for this procedure for people in my sort of situation? (In terms of, recurrence, 5-yr survival). But ask this question only if you want to know the answer.
Is there more than one surgical procedure/approach that you would be considering in my situation (for example, more invasive, less invasive)?
How will the timing work, in terms of coordinating surgery and chemo?

Best wishes and hope you have a good meeting
Tara

JADot

Hey I went to the same folks and they are great! You are getting the best advice there is from the combo of Stanford and UCSF, both are excellent facilities.

I saw Chen/Porzig at Standford and Venook at UCSF for a 2nd opinion. I had my colon resection surgery done at the Good Sam hospital in San Jose, by Dr. Bruce Wilbur whom I just adore. He comes right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. When I went to have my stitches taken out, he said to me that he thought I'd be just fine, with a twinkle. That twinkle did more than anything to instill the faith in healing in me. He's such a great surgeon, I can rant and rave for hours about him. My Gastro guy, who's quite the cycling stud-muffin, told me to buy a new bike, which I did, that was good sound advice too

I do digress.

What to ask. You are way organized, which is great. At the San Jose Good Sam hospital there is a small but very effective library, can't remember on which floor. From there I picked up lot of useful mat'l, among which is a "Colon and Rectal Cancer Treatment Guidelines for Patients" booklet published by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. It's 72 pages of extrememly relevent stuff, with decision trees to help you sort through all the scenarios. You can find it on line at http://www.nccn.org/patients/patient_gls/_english/_colon/contents.asp.

Best of luck to you!

Cheers,
Ying

scouty

JADot said:

Hey I went to the same folks and they are great! You are getting the best advice there is from the combo of Stanford and UCSF, both are excellent facilities.

I saw Chen/Porzig at Standford and Venook at UCSF for a 2nd opinion. I had my colon resection surgery done at the Good Sam hospital in San Jose, by Dr. Bruce Wilbur whom I just adore. He comes right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. When I went to have my stitches taken out, he said to me that he thought I'd be just fine, with a twinkle. That twinkle did more than anything to instill the faith in healing in me. He's such a great surgeon, I can rant and rave for hours about him. My Gastro guy, who's quite the cycling stud-muffin, told me to buy a new bike, which I did, that was good sound advice too

I do digress.

What to ask. You are way organized, which is great. At the San Jose Good Sam hospital there is a small but very effective library, can't remember on which floor. From there I picked up lot of useful mat'l, among which is a "Colon and Rectal Cancer Treatment Guidelines for Patients" booklet published by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. It's 72 pages of extrememly relevent stuff, with decision trees to help you sort through all the scenarios. You can find it on line at http://www.nccn.org/patients/patient_gls/_english/_colon/contents.asp.

Best of luck to you!

Cheers,
Ying

Ying,

I thought Kanga was our residence stud muffin biker.........

JADot

scouty said:

Ying,

I thought Kanga was our residence stud muffin biker.........

haha Scouty. Kanga, and Bud are our resident biker stud muffins! That would make me a muffinette, wouldn't it?

Ying