It’s best when given a very serious diagnosis, like breast cancer, to get a second opinion. While you might trust your doctor you want to make sure that you have all of your bases covered. Just getting the opinion of one doctor doesn’t ensure that you are going to be making the right decisions going forward about your treatment options. You need the opinion of the second doctor. You will find that visiting a second doctor will leave you with far more questions than answers. So if you are going to see another doctor make sure you are prepared with the right questions so that you won’t leave wondering what just happened.
Do you have the same diagnosis as my doctor?
This seems like it would be the first question that the doctor would answer, and they often do, but it’s never answered in the right way. Often times doctors talk around the answer. Not on purpose, but as the nature of who they are. Make sure you get a concrete answer from your doctor. It’s hard to ask any other questions if you don’t know the answer to that.
What are your recommendations for treatment options?
There are a number of doctors who will tell you what you need to know, but not what you want to know. What you want to know is what they recommend for getting you better. Ask them directly how they would go about treating the cancer and see if what they suggest differ from what your primary doctor has been telling you. This should give you the idea on whether you should ignore the first doctor if they happen to be in agreement.
Ask the right questions is about being thorough. You don’t want a situation where you don’t ask an important question. Battling cancer is about having the right information. Don’t make the mistake of skipping the important questions.