Questions to Ask Your Surgeon
- What is the exact procedure that you will be performing? Can you draw a diagram to help me understand? Or, do you have a pamphlet explaining the procedure?
- How is this surgery going to make things better for me?
- What are alternatives? What if I don’t choose to have surgery?
- What impact will surgery and recovery have on my daily life?
- What will recovery look like and how long will it be before I feel improvement from the surgery?
- When will I be able to go back to work (school, babysitting my grandchildren or something else important to you)?
- What does a “best case scenario” look like for me?
- What does a “worst case scenario” look like for me?
- Given my health and medical conditions, what is the most likely outcome?
- What can I do to prepare myself, physically and mentally?
- What can I do to prepare my home for after surgery?
- May I share what matters to me most as an outcome of this surgery?