First thing this morning I had a 7:45am appointment to get blood work done at the Cancer Center closest to my house; it is literally about a mile away. There were at least a hundred people waiting in the lab reception area, so I didn’t get called up until 8:15am and the CBC blood draw went very quickly. There are dozens and dozens of phlebotomist cubicles so despite the crowd, people do get seen very quickly. After the blood draw I rushed to my appointment with the colorectal surgeon, and after filling out several pages of paperwork and getting my vitals checked by the nurse, I soon got to meet the surgeon’s physician assistant and talk about my physical condition, history, and vitals.

First thing this morning I had a 7:45am appointment to get blood work done at the Cancer Center closest to my house; it is literally about a mile away. There were at least a hundred people waiting in the lab reception area, so I didn’t get called up until 8:15am and the CBC blood draw went very quickly. There are dozens and dozens of phlebotomist cubicles so despite the crowd, people do get seen very quickly. After the blood draw I rushed to my appointment with the colorectal surgeon, and after filling out several pages of paperwork and getting my vitals checked by the nurse, I soon got to meet the surgeon’s physician assistant and talk about my physical condition, history, and vitals.

Soon after that meeting, the Chief of Gastrointestinal and Colorectal Surgery for the hospital arrived for our appointment. I was very impressed with his un-rushed, compassionate manner. He took the time to answer dozens of my questions and explained very carefully what surgical procedure he recommended for removing the two cancerous tumors. The procedure he expected is a surgical laparoscopy to perform a partial colectomy, with anastomosis, where the ascending colon (tumor #1), hepatic flexure, transverse colon (tumor #2), and splenic flexure will be removed and the small intestine will be attached to the remaining descending colon. This will result in about 4 or 5 bowel movements a day, and there would be enough descending colon left intact that normal formed bowel movements were possible. The surgery would take about 3 hours, as the anastomosis that joined the small instestine to the large intestine would have to be carefully stapled, stitched, and tested. As a software engineer, I liked the use of the word ‘tested’ because it gave me warm fuzzies that the surgeon was experienced and careful. The surgeon indicated that since the CT scan indicated no evidence of metastasis, enlarged lymph nodes. or obvious spread of cancer to the lymph nodes, it is possible there might be no chemotherapy if the pathologist analyzes the removed tissues and finds no indications of cancer in the lymph nodes. We made tentative plans for a surgery appointment on October 11, 2021, with the understanding that if I decided to go with the other hospital and its surgeon we could cancel that appointment.

Soon after that meeting, the Chief of Gastrointestinal and Colorectal Surgery for the hospital arrived for our appointment. I was very impressed with his un-rushed, compassionate manner. He took the time to answer dozens of my questions and explained very carefully what surgical procedure he recommended for removing the two cancerous tumors. The procedure he expected is a surgical laparoscopy to perform a partial colectomy, with anastomosis, where the ascending colon (tumor #1), hepatic flexure, transverse colon (tumor #2), and splenic flexure will be removed and the small intestine will be attached to the remaining descending colon. This will result in about 4 or 5 bowel movements a day, and there would be enough descending colon left intact that normal formed bowel movements were possible. The surgery would take about 3 hours, as the anastomosis that joined the small instestine to the large intestine would have to be carefully stapled, stitched, and tested. As a software engineer, I liked the use of the word ‘tested’ because it gave me warm fuzzies that the surgeon was experienced and careful. The surgeon indicated that since the CT scan indicated no evidence of metastasis, enlarged lymph nodes. or obvious spread of cancer to the lymph nodes, it is possible there might be no chemotherapy if the pathologist analyzes the removed tissues and finds no indications of cancer in the lymph nodes. We made tentative plans for a surgery appointment on October 11, 2021, with the understanding that if I decided to go with the other hospital and its surgeon we could cancel that appointment.

Next I had my first visit with my chosen oncologist, who was warm and friendly. I had already decided that all my oncology visits and chemotherapy if needed would be performed at the hospital nearest my house, which is also better ranked for cancer care. The appointment was rushed because I spent so much time with the surgeon asking him questions. Next I met the surgeon’s lead nurse and received a sheaf of pre-op instructions, prescriptions, and the like, and we left in a hurry because we were running late for our next appointment, about 40 minutes away.

We had to rush all the way to the other hospital to meet with the colorectal surgeon there. It was a good visit, with a long question-and-answer period where I got to ask questions I didn’t realize had been percolating in my head after speaking to the first surgeon. I was very impressed that this second surgeon sat me on the table and did an examination of my abdomen, finding a hernia at my belly button he said would be easy to fix in the process, and in general leaving me with a very positive impression of him being a capable, hands-on doctor. I was comforted that the second surgeon suggested the same surgical approach as the first, so there was happy agreement on that point.

The thing that really gave me pause was a bit of a cavalier attitude on the part of the second doctor. He was young and exuberantly confident in his skills, and said the surgery would take about 90 minutes, and that time estimate was half as long as the first surgeon’s estimate. This made me unsure as to whether a quicker surgery was better and less risky, or whether it would be more slapdash.

The thing that really gave me pause was a bit of a cavalier attitude on the part of the second doctor. He was young and exuberantly confident in his skills, and said the surgery would take about 90 minutes, and that time estimate was half as long as the first surgeon’s estimate. This made me unsure as to whether a quicker surgery was better and less risky, or whether it would be more slapdash.</p>

We were sent into the scheduler’s office after that, and by a funny coincidence their earliest opportunity to schedule me was also October 11. Since their surgical schedule seemed less tentative than the first hospital’s, I didn’t make the appointment so that I would have time to process all the information I took in that day, and decide which place I should choose to have the surgery.

Somehow the Lovin’ Spoonful song “Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind?” (link here) kept playing in my head while I tried to make a decision. Dumb brain jukebox.

By the time I climbed into bed I decided to go with the surgeon I felt was more experienced, at the first hospital, and worked in the same clinic as my oncologist, so lab work, radiology, pathology, and medical records would be more readily available to all the people involved. I ended up having a strong positive feeling about this decision moving forward.