Given your history, your team at a CCC (comprehensive cancer center) would certainly include someone who can weigh in on how your artery blockage would affect your course of treatment.

Either your current doctor can make a referral for a second opinion or you can simply call and make the appointment yourself. Most CCCs will move quickly to fit you in once cancer has been diagnosed; they will tell you what you need to bring to your first appointment or arrange to have sent in advance (biopsy slides, test results, etc.). I believe most insurance plans will cover a second opinion. (Not sure about the third, fourth and fifth, though -- you can ask David!)

I mentioned Emory because it appears to be relatively close to Rome and because several people who post here have been treated there. Others here have gone much farther from home for their second opinions and/or treatment -- for example, to M.D. Anderson in Houston or Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York, the top-ranked cancer centers in the country, according to U.S. News.

-- Leslie