So I'm at the point where I gotta make a call on where to do my follow-up stuff after the EPP surgery I had in February. I'm in Detroit and there's a couple places nearby but also some bigger names a few hours away and I'm trying to figure out what's actually worth the drive vs what's just reputation hype.
Like, everyone says go to the big cancer centers but nobody really explains what to actually look at. Is it just how many meso cases they do a year? I called Karmanos here in Detroit and they told me they do maybe 8-10 a year but they've got the surgeons on staff already. Then I called one of the bigger places downstate and they were quoting me like 40+ cases annually but it's two hours of driving each way and my wife would have to take even more time off.
I'm also wondering about stuff like do they have a pulmonologist and an oncologist who actually know meso specifically, or is it just general cancer docs? And what about the actual numbers like survival rates and recurrence rates. I tried asking one place for their stats and they kinda gave me the runaround, said it varies too much by stage and individual factors which is true but also didn't answer the question.
Anybody else have to make this choice? What questions did you wish you'd asked before you picked?