Got my diagnosis in June, had my pleurectomy in August with Dr. Vogelzang's team at the VA in Durham. Wanted to lay out what I actually looked at when picking because it's not just credentials on a wall.
First thing. Volume matters more than you think. I wanted someone who does meso cases regularly, not somebody who does it once a year and thinks they're an expert. When I called around I asked point blank how many pleurectomies they do in a year. Duke was doing 12 to 15. That's real experience, not theoretical. Some places I called had done maybe 3 or 4 total.
Second, ask about their follow-up protocol. What happens after surgery. Do they have oncologists on staff who work with meso specifically or are you getting shuffled to somebody who treats general lung cancer and doesn't know the first thing about meso behavior. That matters because meso doesn't act like regular lung cancer and you need people who understand that.
Third thing I did was talk to people who'd already had surgery at that place. Not through the hospital. I mean I called the meso support line and asked if anybody wanted to talk to me off the record about their experience. Got two guys on the phone who'd been through it there. They told me the real stuff, what the recovery was actually like, whether the team treated them like a person or a case number.
Also check if they're part of any trials or research. I ended up in a follow-up trial and that meant extra monitoring which honestly felt good. Meant somebody was paying real attention.
Location matters too but not how you think. Don't pick based on distance. Pick based on whether they're actually good and then deal with the travel. I drove to Durham from Norfolk. That's 2.5 hours. Worth it for the right surgeon.
Don't go with your local guy just because he's local if he's doing this as a side thing. This is your life we're talking about. Ask hard questions. If a surgeon or oncologist gets defensive about answering them, that's your answer right there.
I'm 4 months post-op now and doing well. Recovery's been solid. Part of that is the surgery itself but a lot of it is having people who knew what they were doing and had done it before.