second opinion

Hi Deenaishere, and welcome! Sorry you have to be here, but glad you've found us and decided to post.

Until you get more replies to this topic, you can learn more on Getting a Second Opinion at the main Breastcancer.org site, including why, where and when to get them, and what to expect.

Hope this helps! Let us know how MRI goes tomorrow!

Best wishes,

From the Mods

Can I ask..where did you look up reviews for your drs?

I'm newly diagnosed and have the same concern as you.

I don't think it's "standard practice" to get a second opinion, but there are general situations where it can be very helpful:

1) You don't like the doctor, just don't click

2) You have a medical problem that isn't treated in a "cookbook" way. For example, my mom has pancreatic cancer and although there are general recommendations, there's a lot of leeway for individual judgement by doctors because there just hasn't been the amount of research done on pancreatic as on breast cancer because it's not as common. She saw two surgeons, one gave her two choices, A or B, A was more appealing but he said he favored B, and the second surgeon thought A was not even on the table. She was a lot more comfortable choosing B after the second opinion.

3) You have a medical problem that isn't responding well to the treatment you've been offered. For example, you hurt your knee and it's not improved after 6 months of PT.

4) You aren't confident your doctor has the expertise to treat your particular problem

It also can be worth it to "try out" different doctors. I knew I was going to have psychological trouble with radiation, so I saw two radiation oncologists. The one recommended by my medical oncologist wasn't someone that could deal with me if I went off the rails, but the second one was. Good thing I chose him because he ended up having to put his soft-skills to work, that's for sure.

Finally, unless you're nowhere near a big city so have limited options, I'd ask around to get other people's opinions besides the doctors you're seeing. Not necessarily for a "second opinion," but to have an arsenal of names in case something doesn't work out. My breast surgeon is interpersonally odd, but patients who don't mind her manner quickly realize her utter dedication and how she works really hard to stay on the cutting edge of what's best for patients. I had to go outside the healthcare system where I was diagnosed to see her, and I'm really glad I did. The referral within that system would have had me waiting a really long time to see a surgeon (I was done with surgery and had already started chemo by the time that appointment would have rolled around), and I had a very rapidly growing tumor. I didn't like that wait, so I asked other doctors that I knew and some women I knew who'd had breast cancer, and got my surgeon's name. Another example: my first oncologist retired, so I had to switch, then the second oncologist moved out of state, I just didn't like the next one, the fourth one stopped taking my insurance, so now I'm on number 5. Moral of the story: good to have a list of names.