Finding out you need spine or brain surgery can be scary. It’s normal to have a whole host of questions: Will I be okay? How long is the recovery process? Does surgery work?
Before you put together those pieces of information, there’s one step not to overlook—getting a second opinion about whether you need surgery at all and who is the best surgeon for you.
Well, the first reason is to make sure that the second opinion is in agreement with what your first doctor had to say. You want them to be on the same page with diagnosis and treatment. It gives you more confidence in your decisions when a second doctor has looked everything over and said, “Yes, I’d do the same.
The second is about choice of surgeon. That choice is extremely important—you need to choose the person you’re most confident would take care of you if you have complications from your surgery.
The third reason goes along with that: You need to make sure that the entire team will be there to take care of you.