Author Topic: Whats the RIGHT answers to surgery questions???  (Read 4671 times)

ConcernedWifeWendy

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Whats the RIGHT answers to surgery questions???
« on: July 27, 2014, 07:36:52 pm »
My husband has been diagnosed with a 1.6cm AN last week.  He sees a neurosurgeon this Wednesday.  I was writing the questions down that the ana recommends for possible surgeon.  It says to make sure that you are comfortable with the responses, but I don't know what the RIGHT answers are or what a bad answer would be.  Like how many ANs have you removed within the past month/year?  What specific training in AN surgery do you have? Experience? The success rate of facial nerve?  MRIs after surgery? Anything else thats not on that list that I should ask?  The doctor he is seeing is Dr. Alexander Bien-his partner is Dr. James Benecke  - Midwest Ear - Missouri Baptist Medical Center.  Anybody know of them?

arizonajack

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Re: Whats the RIGHT answers to surgery questions???
« Reply #1 on: July 29, 2014, 09:00:56 pm »
Contact the St Louis support group:

Leader: Agnes Garino
314-821-1905
algarino@sbcglobal.net
 
Co-Leader: Phyllis Trulock
314-822-3221
ptru20@yahoo.com
 
Co-Leader: Elizabeth Clark
636-227-1059
schatzi.clark@gmail.com
 
3/15/18 12mm x 6mm x5mm
9/21/16 12mm x 7mm x 5mm
3/23/15 12mm x 5.5mm x 4mm
3/13/14 12mm x 6mm x 4mm
8/1/13 14mm x 5mm x 4mm (Expected)
1/22/13 12mm x 3mm (Gamma Knife)
10/10/12 11mm x 4mm x 5mm
4/4/12 9mm x 4mm x 3mm (Diagnosis)

My story at: http://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=18287.0

john1455

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Re: Whats the RIGHT answers to surgery questions???
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2014, 09:37:32 am »
The "right answer" is the one that makes sense to you after you ask the physician "why?" as a followup question to his answer. Most doctors who know what they are doing and are good at what they do can explain things to their patients so that it is easily understandable. So use commonsense, if it makes sense to you then that is the "right answer." If not, then continue with followup questions until it does make sense to you. If it never gets to that point, then it is the "wrong answer" for you.

Obviously the more AN cases that are done, the more experience the doctor has and that is probably THE most important thing of all. Commonsense will tell you that a neurosurgeon who does hundreds of cases a year will be much more adept then one who does only a few. And since ANs are supposed to be rare, that makes the number of cases done even more important. I chose not to have the first neurosurgeon I consulted treat me because when I asked him how many cases he did annually, he never gave me an answer. He played around his iPhone scrolling the screen apparently looking for cases he had done but he never did give me any answer. Then I remembered the answers he had given me to my questions and then I went to get second opinions and compared the answers. It would be in your best interest to see several doctors and get several opinions. Then evaluate the answers you were given and the one who gave you the most logical and commonsense answers is the one who would most likely be your best bet. One thing to keep in mind, however, is not to fall for the mistaken belief that there is only one way to perform a procedure. Doctors come from all different walks of life, have different training, have different levels of medical knowledge (as in postgraduate education), etc. so just because one doctor says one thing and another says something different, neither one is wrong because they are speaking from their own personal experience. This is only confusing if you have the mindset that there is only one answer for everything. In the real world, this is often not the case. You need to decide which opinion makes better sense to you and always use commonsense when possible; you will be surprise how good that often works. Although my background is dentistry, what I have said applies to medicine as well.
Diagnosed with 19x16x19mm cystic AN right side on 7/2013
MRI on 3/2014 showed AN increased to 21x20mm
right side 70% hearing loss, tinnitus, balance issues
CK at Stanford completed 3/21/2014 (3 sessions)
Dr Steven Chang and Dr Iris Gibbs

v357139

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Re: Whats the RIGHT answers to surgery questions???
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2014, 08:07:28 pm »
The answers should make you confident that they are experienced surgeons with great track records for facial preservation, with low instance of complications such as CSF leaks or long term headaches.  I chose ones who are currently doing at least a few a week and have done way over 500 total.  They also gave me their actual statistics for a tumor my size +- two millimeters.  He gave the total number performed, and the number that achieved good long term facial results (House Brackmann 2 or greater).  That is one reason I chose him, that he was willing to give statistics on his results, and those results were very good.  I suggest seeing several surgeons, as the same questions, take notes, and compare the answers.  Best of luck and keep us posted.
Dx 2.6 cm Nov 2012, 35% hearing loss.  Grew to 3.5 cm Oct 2013.  Pre-op total hearing loss, left side tongue numb.  Translab Nov 2013 House Clinic.  Post-op no permanent facial or other issues.  Tongue much improved.  Great result!!

v357139

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Re: Whats the RIGHT answers to surgery questions???
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2014, 08:11:26 pm »
His stats gave a 94% rate for long term House Brackmann 2 or better, for tumors that were 2mm plus/minus 2.6cm.  If you ask specific questions like this, they will see that you know what you are talking about, and they may give more detailed answers.
Dx 2.6 cm Nov 2012, 35% hearing loss.  Grew to 3.5 cm Oct 2013.  Pre-op total hearing loss, left side tongue numb.  Translab Nov 2013 House Clinic.  Post-op no permanent facial or other issues.  Tongue much improved.  Great result!!