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Should I get a second opinion about surgery?
Aortic Aneurysms | Last Active: Jul 19 9:33am | Replies (43)Comment receiving replies
I would choose Dr Fishbein at Stanford. He appears to be conversant with all possible issues. Going local could be a disaster - we have had a patient advocacy business for 35 years and have done site visits at all these major hospitals. From a systems viewpoint, most community hospitals cannot compare to these major academic hospitals.
You should speak with the social work dept at Stanford. They can provide you with information about the post op protocol and process. I suspect you would be referred to a skilled rehab facility for at least six weeks.
In our previous experience with other services (primarily transplant patients at Stanford) Stanford had “tentacles” to resources outside the Palo Alto area. Patients are referred to them from all over California, the US and even Internationally.
Write down your needs and your questions and present them to a social worker. I suspect Stanford Cardiovascular surgery also has Patient Navigators who could be helpful about the operative process, etc..
The giant cell arteritis is a risk factor for rupture. What is the status of your GCA?
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Such excellent feedback, thanks so much. I just checked Stanford Hospital website and they do have patient navigators and social workers. I will look into this. Also, since I don’t really have a strong “anchor” person to see me through this whole thing, enlisting a patient advocate seems like it will be essential. It’s all very overwhelming, especially if I choose Stanford and will be in the city and away from my home. It does seem like Stanford is the obvious choice, however. Your point about the differences between a smaller community hospital and a large academic hospital is right on.
As for my giant cell arteritis status, supposedly it’s “calmed down” now following a recent 3 month course of prednisone, according to my rheumatologist. However, this was not standard course of treatment, usually it’s much longer and with higher doses for GCA, but I gratefully accepted this shorter course and trusted my rheumatologist. It’s frustrating though because he can’t say for sure that there’s no more inflammation. My inflammatory markers were in normal range in April, my headache has gone away, but I still have fatigue.
Dr Fischbein (Stanford surgeon) has ordered full body PET scan prior to surgery to rule out “aortitus” (never have heard that term before!).
You mentioned possibility of 6 weeks at a rehab facility.. yikes. Do you know if it’s customary for an out of town patient be transferred to a rehab facility nearest the hospital where surgery was done? Or do patients get sent back to their home towns for post-op care?
Thanks again for all your valuable info.