So we're about three months into Joe's immunotherapy now and I keep thinking back to how we chose where to do his treatment and honestly it was way harder than I expected. When he got diagnosed in September, everything happened so fast and then by November we had to make this huge decision and I wasn't even sure what questions to ask.
Here's what I wish someone had told us upfront. It's not just about picking the fanciest hospital or the closest one to home, though that matters some. We looked at four different centers and what really helped was calling and asking straight up how many meso cases they do in a year. One place told us they do maybe five or six surgeries a year for pleural cases, and another one said they do that many a month. That's... that's a big difference when you're talking about your husband's life.
We also asked about their team setup. Like, do they have a thoracic surgeon, an oncologist, and a palliative care person who actually talk to each other or does it feel like they're doing their own thing. One of the places we called, the coordinator transferred us three times and nobody seemed to know what we were asking about. That was a red flag for me because I taught school for thirty-two years and I know when an organization is actually connected or just going through the motions.
The drive matters too but not as much as I thought. We're in Tampa and ended up going to a place two hours away because they had better outcomes for Joe's stage and his specific situation. It's doable. Some days it's exhausting but we made the right call.
And don't skip asking about their follow-up plan before you even start treatment. What happens after surgery or after chemo cycles, how often will you see them, can you do some visits by phone if you're tired. That stuff saved us honestly because the first month after his treatment started I was running on fumes.
Anyone else going through this decision right now... what questions are you struggling with?