Need a second opinion
Not sure whether this post will be allowed, but I'm not happy with the surgeon I was referred to and I would like to get a second opinion. Is it possible to see reviews and recommendations online anyw...
Forum Discussion
Thanks arpie for your comment. I did end up going to James French and found him very friendly. I ended up choosing him for my surgery after recommendations from a number of different people. I have no complaints and I'm just about to go back for my one-year follow up with him.
Just for interest, the first surgeon I saw wanted to perform a double mastectomy, because I had dense breasts. That was really her only reason. When I seemed a bit reluctant to do this (the cancer they found was slow-growing and only 1mm in size) she seemed quite annoyed with me.
Dr French suggested a lumpectomy (wide local excision he called it) and thank goodness I went with that. There was NO more cancer - it had all been removed in the original biopsy!
Imagine if I'd hade both breasts removed and I'd got those results!
However, it costs a lot of money to get a second opinion! Each initial specialist visit was $250 and I got only $70 back from Medicare each time. I was lucky that I could afford to spend the money, but there must be plenty of people out there who can't and end up going with the first specialist they see.
I also later read that less experienced breast surgeons tend to perform more mastectomies because it's easier to do than try to reshape a breast after a lumpectomy.
I hope someone else finds my comments helpful.
Just for interest, the first surgeon I saw wanted to perform a double mastectomy, because I had dense breasts. That was really her only reason. When I seemed a bit reluctant to do this (the cancer they found was slow-growing and only 1mm in size) she seemed quite annoyed with me.
Dr French suggested a lumpectomy (wide local excision he called it) and thank goodness I went with that. There was NO more cancer - it had all been removed in the original biopsy!
Imagine if I'd hade both breasts removed and I'd got those results!
However, it costs a lot of money to get a second opinion! Each initial specialist visit was $250 and I got only $70 back from Medicare each time. I was lucky that I could afford to spend the money, but there must be plenty of people out there who can't and end up going with the first specialist they see.
I also later read that less experienced breast surgeons tend to perform more mastectomies because it's easier to do than try to reshape a breast after a lumpectomy.
I hope someone else finds my comments helpful.