Surgical Consultation No. 1

On Monday, January 5, I met with a cardio-thoracic surgeon at Penn Presbyterian Hospital, a branch of the Penn Medicine health care system in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, my husband and I were forced to wait over two hours past our appointment time before we finally got a chance to talk to the doctor himself. While the consultation was valuable in terms of adding to the information we need to make decisions about my surgery, we both felt that this particular surgeon would not be the best choice for me, and we were disappointed in the way we were treated at the facility. Unlike my meeting with another surgeon back in 2009 at a different branch of Penn Medicine, this doctor was at least personable, honest and sincere. He was also willing to listen to our concerns and to try to accommodate my wishes in terms of how I view the procedure I need. In particular, while he initially indicated that his conservative approach would be to not address my 4.6 cm aortic aneurysm at the time of AVR, he agreed to replace it after I indicated that I wanted it addressed. At first he told me "I don't think it will give you any problems." Perhaps not, but who wants to have open heart surgery and not see the surgeon correct an aneurysm that could potentially dissect in the future or require another operation? This captures the difference between the approach of this surgeon and the approach that I need. I don't want a conservative approach. I want a surgeon with a proactive approach willing to fix as much as possible as long as he is in there. So Wednesday we meet with another surgeon at a different facility. Hopefully, the experience will be better and the surgeon will prove to be more in line with my needs and expectations.