Consultation Patient

A former patient has kindly given their account of their experience when they visited the Consultation room.

Experience:
I was told that my biopsy for cancer was positive over the telephone, so my first consultation was to meet the surgeon to discuss treatment. I asked if I could take my husband along to take notes for me, as I was still pretty much in a state of shock, and knew I wouldn't remember everything that was said. There was no problem with this; in fact, it was welcomed and when I read my notes later he had a special mention as 'a very supportive husband' - he was really chuffed.

The consultation room was quite small when there were four people in it (there was a nurse present as well), plus a desk, four chairs and a curtained-off couch in the corner. I undressed behind the curtain for an examination and then the consultant (who was a surgeon) showed us on my x-ray where the cancer was. He described the treatment he recommended, and answered all my questions, but as I'd expected, I could remember very little of the detail afterwards, so my husband's notes were very useful. The consultation lasted about 25 minutes.

It's hard to know the questions to ask before you've actually been through the whole process, especially when you're still trying to come to terms with your diagnosis. If I had to do it all over again (Heaven forbid) I would make sure I had a list of questions to take with me - questions like "If I don't have this treatment, what will happen?", "Is there any other way of treating this illness?" and " How long will it take me to get back to normal?"