Share review of Mr Paul Thiruchelvam

Mr Paul Thiruchelvam 2020-07-07 Person 5 5 0

I felt totally confident in Mr Thiruchelvam from the outset - his experience and expertise were evident and I was happy to literally be in his hands. I felt my surgery was handled very sensitively and carefully and I was reassured from check in to discharge. One thing - my follow up appointment left me slightly reeling. The first things I was told was that my invasive cancer was much bigger than originally suspected and also that there was much more DCIS going on that anyone had previously been aware of. But it took me a while to understand that it was actually good news - I needed no more surgery as the margins of my lumpectomy were clear, as was my lymph node. These first two facts I was told literally framed the rest of the consultation and really did cloud my ability to understand and process anything else I was told. Even when I asked about my lymph node and was told it was clear, I had to ask the question "that's good news isn't it?". I take full responsibility for not having brought my husband with me (perhaps it may be an idea to insist that patients have someone with them when they receive their results - just to process all the information). In fact, I trust and believe in Mr Thiruchelvam so much that I was too positive/complacent before the appointment and didn't think my husband 'needed' to come - my fault. There is no doubt I was told all the facts including what happens next which was clearly what needed to happen at this consultation. But in the interests of ensuring patients are fully engaged, I think it would be great to hear the top line good news facts (if possible) in the first few minutes, also qualified with something along the lines of 'there's a lot more detail we're going to discuss including some things that we hadn't anticipated, but it's important you know that you need no more surgery, the margins were clear and your lymph node was clear too." Hope this makes sense..