Hi
There is not much information out there for a tumour attached to the corited artery. How do I know who is the best to deal with this. My GP sent me to a ENT consultant but who is to say he is the best. He was very blase at the only meeting to discuss what he had found. I have 1 million questions and have had to ask him to see me again. Should I just keep the faith? My faimly and I are demented. It is the not knowing. Any advice out there?
Chris
FormerMember
leaving the usual caveat of "everyone is different", try not to make a mental picture of your tumour - it probably won't be like you think it is.
My wife has recently had surgery, followed by radiotherapy for a tumour in a lymph node (following previous tongue cancer surgery).
It was not possible to remove all the tumour and margins by surgery because it was adjacent (I hesitate to say attached) to the artery. Surgery by an maxio-facial consultant removed about 98% of the tumour and radiotherapy combined with sensitizing chemotherapy was used to atrophy the remainder and "clean the area".
I am not sure of the terms ENT and Maxio-Facial as descriptions of consultants and how much they may overlap or even be interchangeable.
You need to know that your consultant is used to dealing with problems similar to yours and he should be able to talk you through the details of the options open to you.
The best advice I can give you is to always take a notepad and pen with you, write everything down, make them spell medical or technical terms and even draw diagrams. My wife took notes for my breast cancer treatment and I took notes for her cancer treatment. It is specially important to write down about medications and side effects later but in early stages it is hard to remeber what different specialists have said because all you want to do is shut down and disappear.
All I can say is that my wife has come through the treatment and is now working on achieving some sort of normality. It is nearly 4 months since surgery and 7 weeks since radiotherapy finished and if there is any bright side, she will never have to worry about dieting again.
PM me if you think your situation is similar; my wife won't talk about her cancers, but I have been with her at every consultation and through the treatments, so I do know how it all came about.
If you want to find out a bit more about your surgeon it might help if you Google him and/or the hospital. I did it with my surgeon and found it reassuring. Good luck with your treatment.
wit Kate, I googled my surgeon at the Marsden and it made me feel 100% confident. You can see where the person qualified, how long ago etc etc and if this isn't available, ask him at the next appointment. Its a bit like asking to see someones CV and we all have that right. I mean you don't want someone thats only just qualified do you? You can ask how many surgeries he has performed of this nature. In fact you can ask anything you want. If he doesn't want to or seems unwilling to respond, I think you have your answer as to expertise. I had to like my surgeon as well, this was very important to me. It also helped he's a hunk lol - nice eye candy on my check ups hahahaha
Many thanks for your comments, today I found out my op is scheduled for 9th June, just a phone call that was it. Should I be asking more questions or is ignorance bliss?
Do you have a Macmillan nurse? If you don't why not contact your GP and ask about one. They can be a great source of information and support. Try writing down all your questions beforehand. Have you looked on the main Macmillan website for information? Simply click on the words Macmillan website written in blue at the top right of this page. Mind you, you'll never qualify as a doctor before the 9th of June! (lol)
I found I wanted to know as much as possible but others don't - you do what feels right for you.
