Questions to ask surgeon?

General General TN & GPN (Old Site)
1

I have my consultation with Dr. Kenneth Casey June 1. Do any of you have suggestions for good questions to ask? I’m a little nervous! Thanks

2

I would ask questions like

  • how many people have you treated w/this condition (are you familiar w/TN?)
  • how long will you treat me with medicine before we consider a procedure.
  • what kind of tests will you be ordering for me

Beach lover- are you going for a consultative visit to a neuro surgeon or a neurologist? if it was a surgeon, I would ask

  • how many surgery have you performed
  • how is you success rate
  • how long will I be in the hospital. what is the recovery time frame
  • what kind of pain will I be in
3

Thank you for the suggestions! Dr Casey is a surgeon. I will be asking questions about MVD’s. For example, I read on a post that they cut neck muscle which causes a lot of neck pain. So I guess it’s surgery and recovery questions I want to ask. When you have a 1 hr consult appt to ask questions about such a big life decision, you want to make sure you ask the right questions! Thanks again for your help!

4

FYI, I have had MVD on both my right and left sides, and did NOT have any neck muscles cut. Dr. Casey is one of very few expert surgeons when it comes to MVD. I am sure you will be in very good hands!

5

Thank you, Christine! Those are very reassuring words!

6

Please feel free to ask me any question you may have!

7

I am looking for a surgeon that performs MVD. I’m looking for someone that specializes in TN and AD. Would you say Dr Casey is one of those surgeons? If you don’t mind me asking what was your results?

8

HI Bill, Dr Casey is very experienced in treating TN. I don’t know about AD, but I would think so. I have my consultation this Wed June 1st. He is located near Detroit Michigan.

9

Hi Bill,
I have bilateral atypical TN1 and 2, with all three branches involved in each side.My surgeon is Jeffrey Brown in NY. I have had MVD on both my right and left sides. I am not sure about his experience with AD, but he is an expert in facial pain. Due to the length of time the nerve had been compressed before my diagnosis (10 years) the MVD on my right failed to resolve the burning boring pain on the right, although it did resolve the shocks, so I had a peripheral nerve stimulator implanted . It works very well at managing my pain. The MVD on my left side was completely successful.
If it is at all possible, you might consider consulting with Dr. brown.
Best of luck to you!
Christine

10

You have chosen an expert TN neurosurgeon with Dr. Casey. He did my successful MVD more than two and a half years ago on 10/30/13. I have been 100% pain free and med free ever since. He was the third neurosurgeon I consulted with and I went out of state to see him. There was a huge difference in my eyes between my consultation with him and the other two. Dr. Casey was the only one that saw my compressions and even showed me. I published my story last Fall that I will post for you here to read. I highly recommend Dr. Casey. He is one of the very few TN experts and he literally gave me my life back. Here is my story . . . Trigeminal Neuralgia: How I Survived the Worse Pain Ever.