travelottie, thanks for the information! I think this doctor is experienced ... he sounded like he was, at least at first. I just realize, as the process goes on, that there are more questions than they gave me information for. This seems to be true of every step of the cancer journey, and of any health complication life throws at us, really. It's getting overwhelming. I mentioned a difficulty with neurologists ... the first one I dealt with gave me her first-line prescription for nerve pain and then had the gall to tell me *I* was a difficult patient. I had complained of a side effect it was causing me, and she insisted that it couldn't possibly be giving me that side effect because none of her other patients had ever had that side effect. It happened to be the number one side effect listed on the patient literature, and I'd had the med before and knew what to look out for. Not a terribly reassuring experience. I've since changed that doctor for a different one who may or may not be any better. Then this all comes up. And you don't know that you don't know what questions to ask till things start to go wrong.

Travel isn't an option for me. I wish it was. Maybe it would make things better.