What should I ask my doctor?

I found the Susan G. Komen site a really helpful place.  If you go there and click on "Understanding Breast Cancer" there will be a drop down. At the bottom of this dropdown is a link: "Questions to Ask the Doctor." That link will take you to PDFs of questions to ask for every step of treatment.  Here is what the link says:

The Questions to Ask the Doctor About Breast Cancer series includes 17 topic cards on a variety of breast cancer issues. Each card contains pertinent questions to discuss with your doctor regarding a specific breast cancer topic. You can download and print the cards and bring them with you to your next doctor's appointment. Plenty of space is provided to jot down the answers to the questions. These topic cards are a valuable tool for women who have been recently diagnosed with breast cancer, who may be too overwhelmed to even know where to begin to start gathering information. These topic cards are also available in Spanish.

and here is the link: http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/QuestionstoAsktheDoctorPDFDownloads.html

Hope this helps. It sure helped me! xoxoxox Lynn

24242 said:

It was 17 years ago when I had a surgeon who wouldn't perscribe more than tylinol 3 for pain and couldn't believe it when my friend is left in such pain after surgery and guess what the same doctor continues to refuse the proper medication so one doesn't curl up in the fetal position.  I asked the name because of my experience and how can that be when we have been found to be so different.

Talk about things that could happen and what the coarse of action could be is sometimes helpful.  There are no bad questions and bring someone with you when you go and make them aware of questions you have in case you forget because we do get overwhelmed.  I read the fine print on all the drugs given because often side affects are dismissed and knowledge was power for me through out my treatment phase.  For those who are not that positive remember that many of us had terrible odds for survival and here we still are.  I was stage 3 with 11 out of 21 positive nodes and triple negative and there was allot that was not known at that timel  I found there was allot we can do to be the force in our own treatment and that helped me along the way feeling like I had some control of my own destiny...

Be good to yourself,

Tara

Here is a website with a great list of questions to ask. There is SO much to learn after a breast cancer diagnosis. It can be overwhelming. I know  - been there, done that. Good luck and please let us know how thing go.

Questions to Ask Your  Entire Health Care Team/Breast Surgeon both before and after surgery/Medical Oncologist/Radiation Oncologist/Plastic Surgeon/Fertility Specialist:

http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/breast-cancer/questions-ask-doctor

IRENE

lynn1950 said:

PDFs

I found the Susan G. Komen site a really helpful place.  If you go there and click on "Understanding Breast Cancer" there will be a drop down. At the bottom of this dropdown is a link: "Questions to Ask the Doctor." That link will take you to PDFs of questions to ask for every step of treatment.  Here is what the link says:

The Questions to Ask the Doctor About Breast Cancer series includes 17 topic cards on a variety of breast cancer issues. Each card contains pertinent questions to discuss with your doctor regarding a specific breast cancer topic. You can download and print the cards and bring them with you to your next doctor's appointment. Plenty of space is provided to jot down the answers to the questions. These topic cards are a valuable tool for women who have been recently diagnosed with breast cancer, who may be too overwhelmed to even know where to begin to start gathering information. These topic cards are also available in Spanish.

and here is the link: http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/QuestionstoAsktheDoctorPDFDownloads.html

Hope this helps. It sure helped me! xoxoxox Lynn

Thank you. For someone starting to educate oneself in having DCIS...it is still overwhelming. tks.