Meeting the Surgeon

Well, eventually, even surgeons have to get back from vacation. We were scheduled for the first appointment of the day - 8AM. We were there on time. The receptionist said hello, and nothing else. We sat for an hour and a half.
A PA came out and escorted us into a room - we sat for 15 minutes. No one said a word.

I asked where the rest room was - On the way back, I asked the receptionist why they were running so late - oh, we had an emergency, she said. Oh, I said, and we weren't entitled to that piece of information? Was their any special reason why they were so incredibly thoughtless? PA, who is walking past, says they were so sorry. Oh, and the doctor is ready.

I said, how do you do. You do know that your office has screwed up twice (also known as every interaction we have had with your staff so far) in my husband's care, and that this is not a very good first impression. She looked startled, then apologized. Then she walked us through the PET scan. Online. Very cool. She showed us that his thyroid looked a little tender (eventually resolved as his low thyroid), and that his vocal cords lighted up (turned out to be "bowed vocal cords"), but that his liver and everything else looked pretty good, until we got down to the area just above the stomach, were there is evidence of something wrong.
This was biopsied as adenocarcinoma.
Then she explained the surgery she does. Basically there are two ways that the esophagus is completely removed. Her's is what they call minimally invasive - It takes 7 hrs - was originally developed at U of Pittsburgh. They don't do one major incision - lots of little ones. She talked about the mortality - about 5%, because she does about 18-20 of these per year. Also discussed why she prefers to work in a community hospital like this one. Seems like a nice, competent woman. She also assured us that her operating staff was much more competent than her office staff!