What do you say when you ask for second opinion ?
What do you say when you ask for second opinion - do you openly say that you are seeking "second opinion" or you pretend that it is the first one ? Do you mention "first opinion" findings at all or you just listen to second opinion and keep your mouth shut ?
Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.
I called the best in town at a CCC research hospital and was upfront that I was looking for a second opinion and the possibility of changing physicians. They obtained all biopsy slides, scans and data from my provider. When I sat down with him, he read me my story through the data.
My experience was that asking nicely for a second opinion got me nowhere. My urologist strongly discouraged me. When I finally went to Mayo, my uroligist's office refused to send them my records, even after repeated requests from Mayo. Finally they relented.
I just called my urologist's office last week (miraculously, a human actually answered the phone) and I canceled all my upcoming appointments.
I am so sorry to hear that you had to endure that :(((
It's striking how ignorant I was about prostate cancer when I got the diagnosis. But learning about the condition was only half the battle; the other half is how to deal with people in the medical system. I'm still learning a lot about that aspect.
Especially like
"help my survivorship collaboratively"