Say you are considering having a ‘breast’ reconstructed after a mastectomy (removal of the breast). Ask to be referred to a plastic surgeon who has done a lot of these operations. Only someone with plenty of experience is in a position to explain beforehand exactly what result you can expect, and then to actually produce the promised result.
All of these are just examples. If you are in doubt about the experience of your doctor, ask directly how often he or she has done the procedure in question. Ask whether there are doctors who specialise in the procedure and, if there are, ask to be referred to them.
A word of warning: specialists have advantages when it comes to knowledge, experience and technical skill. However, they also tend to have a major disadvantage — they are less likely to see you as a whole person. Specialists do not take a broad view, on the contrary, they tend to take a very narrow view. Specialists tend to see their patients as caricatures, with the particular aspect they are interested in blown up out of all proportion to everything else. They may even act as though other aspects of their patients don’t exist.
Try to think of your specialists as resource people who have a lot of very specialised knowledge, some of which they can share with you. They also have special expertise which you can take advantage of, if you choose. However, even if, for example, someone knows everything there is to know about chemotherapy and is very experienced at giving it, this still does not make them the best person to decide whether you should have chemotherapy. The best person to decide is someone who knows a bit about your cancer and what you can expect from chemotherapy, and a lot about you—your values, priorities, expectations, strengths and weaknesses. That person is you.
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