questions for the surgeon (got any to add?)

[Enudely]

Hi all!!
Well, I'm meeting the surgeon on Monday. This is starting to get too real!! Anyway, I've taken the advice of everyone and tried to educate the heck out of myself. I wanted to post the list of questions that I have for the surgeon to see if anyone has anything to add. I think it is pretty thourough but would appreciate any advice
1- how many operations have you done? How many were successful?
2- What complications can arise and how do you handle them?
3- What are the details of the procedure?
4- Will I be sedated while I am on the breathing tube?
5- will I be given morphine before the chest tubes are removed?
6- should I have my own blood available for transfusion if necessary?
7- Who will administer my anesthesia and what are his/her qualifications?
8- Is he/she certified by his own organization?
9- Have you worked with him/her before?
10- Is he/she regularly performing anesthisea for heart surgeries?
11- will be he/she be present and watching me throughout the entire surgery?

O.K, so I know this list is long and may be overkill, but I want to make sure I haven't missed anything important. What do you think?

 

[Ross]

Might want to ask him if he has malpractice insurance.

 

[fyrfytr]

Hey Elena,
I would also ask him how long will you be on the bypass machine and how long will your length of stay be.
Take Care

Dave
___________________________
Surgery: 4/21/03
Aortic Aneurysm Repair
AVR, with a St. Jude Mechanical

 

[dwfreck]

You could also add, "Will I be able to play the violin after surgery?"

 

[MarciaB]

Elena,

I don't see any valve questions. Do you already know what you are doing? (And what his second choice is if the first doesn't pan out). I found that I got the best answers when I asked why he felt that way after he expressed an opinion. Be sure to ask how many of YOUR TYPE surgeries he's done, not just open heart. I wish I had asked more questions about the nuts and bolts of the surgery. At the time I didn't really what to know (and my husband REALLY didn't want to know) but now my morbid curiousity has taken over and I'd like to know more, but am having trouble finding out more (you'd think the internet would supply a blow by blow, but I haven't found it).

Also you can ask what he feels the your personal risk is. It will be different for a young person than the overall numbers, and should help ease anxiety. Ask him about scarring, and if he will sew, glue, or staple you up. I wish I had had him show me exactly where the scar is going to be. This is silly, but my surgeon was very friendly (a bit quiet, though), and I wish I had asked him to hold his hands out so I could see that they are steady. I think he would have done it.

Also ask if you can call him if more questions come up. I asked if they had someone who could talk to my kids about the surgery (if you SO doesn't go with you to your appointments) and they were very nice and gave me the pager number of one of the nurses in the office who will come over and talk to them while I'm in surgery. (Got that idea from the site somewhere).

Hey, how did the cath go?

Marcia

 

[Nancy]

Texas Heart Institute has a couple fo good descriptions about heart surgery. The first one is a general overview, then you can click on valve surgery specifics.

http://www.tmc.edu/thi/hsurg.html

 

[Mara]

Enudely-

How about, as Marcia suggests: What's plan B in case Plan A doesn't work out?
Have you talked valves? There are lots of different kinds. What do you want? What does the surgeon prefer? Then there is the whole mechanical vs tissue issue.


Here is my lawyer take on your list and also based on the questions I asked the surgeons I interviewed. There are two kinds of doctors: those who have been sued and those who will be. Just because your doc was sued is not bad. All docs get sued, if they don't they aren't seeing patients.

I would ask the surgeon about outcomes of surgery, asking "how many were successful" will probably result in the answer: "All of them." Most surgeons go by outcome. If you want to know has this surgeon had anyone die during a procedure ask him that. Be as straight-forward and honest as you can be. Surgeons are usually a pretty cocky group and prefer frankness to subtlety.
Don't be afraid to ask whatever you want. The doctor works for you! For instance, my surgeon had done 500 AVR's but only 50 Ross Procedures, but all 50 had excellent outcomes. Not all 500 AVR's did. I went with him based on outcome of the Ross not total AVR.

The best thing I did was research my surgery and all the available options. I took a big three-ring binder full of stuff with me to the appointment and asked a ton of questions based on the research I had found.
Getting educated takes away a lot of fears.

The anesthesiologist who did my surgery spent about 90 minutes with me answering questions and dicussing the procedure. I may have been lucky because my brother, who is an anesthesiologist, was there, too. But I know my bro spends about an hour with each patient and calls them the night before the surgery too. He does lots of cardiac cases.

You are on the right track. If you have a question, ask it. keeping on asking until you get all the answers you need.
-Mara

 

[Enudely]

Thanks for all the advice! I will modify my list accordingly.
Marcia, for a detailed account of my cath ,see the thread I posted entitled "Elena's update, brace yourself". It was actually an extremely trauatic experience!!! Go figure.
About the valves, I know that I want a biological one because I plan on having children... though I do plan to ask the surgeon which one is best for me (I forgot to put that on the VR.com list) I will ask him about plan B also.
thanks everyone!