Met 2nd surgeon for another opinion

Awhile ago I wrote that my daughter (17 years old) had seen a surgeon. We liked him alot. He prefers to do the surgery in 3 steps and not laproscopically. We decided to meet another surgeon (also thought it important to get a 2nd opinion).

We saw the 2nd surgeon today. This is his area of expertise. He has performed these surgeries for 20 years. He trained under Dr. Fazio from the Cleveland Clinic. We liked him alot. He also does not perform the surgery laproscopically. But if he feels the patient is healthy he does the surgery in 2 steps. He did a small scope of my daughter (a few inches up) and said it shows no inflammation...yay!. So that would cut out one surgery right there.
The 1st surgery (1st surgeon) is scheduled for June 27. The 2nd surgeon could do it on July 3 (one week later). My daughter would rather just have it done tomorrow to get the ball rolling (the waiting is making her crazy).

The hospitals are about the same distance for us.
In some ways we are leaning towards this 2nd surgeon. I have to let them know soon because they want to officially book the date for either my daughter or someone else. I would also have to cancel the 1st surgeon.

Any input?

From my experiences with surgeons and the operations i've had, most of these surgeons end most of thier sentences with ' but we'll have a better idea once we're in there'. Keep all your options open. They can be the best surgeons around, but it sometimes doesn't even go as they plan.
As far as i know ( i'm not a doc ) the 3 steps are usually to let certain areas heal up before moving on. The insides can only take so much at a time.
Good luck.

However, thousands of us have had traditional open surgery and not suffered any post op complications. I would go with the best surgeon, the one who has had more experience, over the style of surgery.

Sue

I would definately go with the specialist!  In my opinion, that would be worth waiting one week...the knowledge that he has should not be overlooked.  I know it will be hard to convince your daughter, but it would be worth it in the long run.

I hope it goes without saying, but I completely agree with suebear about the surgeon's experience level. I'm just saying that if you've got the time to shop around and are in a position to try for it, the laparoscopic version may be worthwhile.

I am hoping to avoid bad outcomes (like obstruction), but also to avoid the sense that I could have done more to avoid them. If I'm laying in a hospital bed with an NG tube (one of my least favorite experiences so far, I must say), I don't want to be thinking: "Maybe if I'd had this done the other way, this wouldn't have happened"! Not everyone's head works that way (nor should they, probably). But mine definitely does.

well i gotta tell you that the stay in the hospital is probably not gonna be happy regardless, lol. Other than having my son i have never had a happy visit, and even that wasn't all that great, lol. She will have a private room probably so it won't really matter who else is on the floor. I wouldt' let that worry you at all.

I booked surgery with the 2nd surgeon for July 3. Unfortunately it means waiting another 6 days but I think this is the right decision. I did request the pediatric floor. The office manager said it shouldn't be a problem. I contacted our insurance company to let them know we were switching surgeons so they could start a claim. I spoke with the 1st surgeon's office and explained that although we thought the world of the doctor (and would recommend him, we felt the other surgeon was better suited to Bratcat). The office manager there was wonderful and made me feel comfortable with our decision (I hate ruffling feathers).

Charlotte, even though Bratcat is currently healthy (or at least almost in remission) we are trying to plan surgery at the early part of the summer so she can recuperate before school starts.  It would have been great to find a surgeon that would do it laproscopically but even though this isn't emergency surgery, we felt we were trying to beat the clock, so to speak. I am sure at some point I will be saying "Why did I allow this?" and have those would have, could have, should have talks with myself.

So my new concern is that the surgery is Thursday, July 3 and the doctor will be away Friday, Saturday, Sunday. He has 3 associates in his office (we have not met). But while we were in consultation with him, we saw the interaction between the doctors. Another doctor (not with the group) called from surgery needing help. Between the 4 doctors, a decision was made about who would go. It was very professional and took just a few minutes before one of the doctors was out the door to the hospital. For some reason, even though the surgeon will be away in the beginning, I feel comfortable. Could it be ignorance? Delusion? Intuition? Who knows.