what questions should I ask gyno-oncologist at 1st appointment?

There are so many potential questions.  If it was me, I would want to know what to expect, how the doctor thinks the situation should be addressed, what his percieved treatment advice would be.  Sometimes they recommend some chemo before they do the surgery, other times, they recommend surgery first.  Sometimes they recommend IP chemo (which is when chemo is injected directly into your abodmen for each treatment, leave it in, and then drain it) along with IV chemo, others will recommend only IV chemo.  You might ask whether there are any new treatments that are showing promise for first line treatment.  If you are not seeing someone at a teaching hospital or who attends the GOG meetings (Gynecoclogical Oncology Group) they may not be up to date on the latest research.  You might want to know how long your hospital stay will be.

I am sure other people will have a list of questions that you might ask.  I would just say, anything that you find yourself wondering about between now and then, write it down and ask.  And make sure you tell him or her what you want, because you get to have a say in this too.

Two things that happened at my initial appointments with new gyn/oncs, I interviewed two before deciding to hire the second one:

1. I asked the first one how many times he had done a debulking surgery.  I had read that you want a surgeon with a lot of experience.  The first one responded that he had done 50, and I felt that was not enough to gain the experience necessary to be very, very good at it.  So, I didn't hire him.  I did hire the second one, who had 40 years experience and who worked at a teaching hospital.  I decided he had the experience I wanted.  Ironically, when I was signing the papers to be admitted for the surgery, the doctor's assistant, when I asked her whether I had to designate someone to make deicisions while I was in surgery, told me that the doctor had so much experience with this procedure and had run across so many situations that there were procedures in textbooks that had his name affiliated with them.  I was glad I picked him.

2. When I first met my second interviewee, I explicitly told him I did not want him to discuss survival or statistics with me.  I knew that if he gave me bad news, it would impact me emotionally and probably affect my outcome.  I know this is not what everyone wants, but it is how I wanted to proceed.  Thankfully, he respected my wishes and did not share with me, what he shared with my brother immediately after my surgery; that I would never acheive remission and that I would not survive for a year.  I proved him wrong. 

Best of luck.  

Dear Madeline_

In reply to your post about questions you need to ask, since we talked before, I decided to put some helpful questions for you to ask on a separate topic link here:  http://csn.cancer.org/node/306192

Many other women are asking the questions you are asking and we need to know as much as we can "going into the consultation."  You've heard the old saying, "The squeaky wheel gets the most grease", well the more we know about our own situation, the more intelligent questions we will be able to ask.  Never be afraid to ask the doctor "What does that mean?"  And ever so often, "How do you spell it?"  Don't be timid.  It's your life!  This puts your own mind at ease when you know that you and the doctor are in it "together." 

Okay, hope your consult goes well, and that all your questions will be answered satisfactorily.

Loretta

Peritoneal Carcinomatosis/Ovarian Cancer Stage IV