I agree different opinions from different doctors is maddening. It happened with me also, and I reacted pretty much the same as you. Others told me a couple of things when I brought it up on the forum, which I now pass on to you.

1. Each specialty likes themselves. Surgeons think surgery is the answer most of the time; same for RO's and MO's. That's probably why someone thought of the bright idea to have a tumor board or tumor panel and let everyone have their say, then choose a prudent path between all of them. You didn't mention whether your case has been presented before a tumor board. Hopefully, it will be and just hasn't yet because of the disruption in everyone's schedule caused by the New Years holiday. If that's the case, then your worrying is premature. Slow down, take a breath and ask your doctor if a tumor board is on the horizon.

2. In actuality, you have already been given a second opinion; coming from a different person, and in you case a different specialty, doesn't that qualify as a second opinion. Now, if you are talking about seeking the (2nd) opinion of another surgeon, okay fine. But, I think I would be much more interested in what other specialties have to say, ie what comes from a tumor board.

Psychologically, you want to agree with your surgeon, we all would as it prevents us from having to face yet more, likely uncomfortable treatment. But, what you are doing sub-consciously is "attaching to an outcome". You want no more treatment to be the answer, and then when it turns out to not be, you are bummed and possibly even angry (I was). It made me start to question the ability of my surgeon.

I remember my surgeon told me we got it all, but you will likely need some radiation anyway. At the time I didn't notice the discontinuity between those two statements. If we got it all then why would you ever need radiation (or chemo). It was my RO who straightened me out on this. And he did it with one simple question - how long were you out under anesthesia. I said an hour and he says they didn't get it all. To get it all is an 11 or 12 hour surgery because they have to cut tissue, send it to pathology for eval, then cut some more, and more and more until pathology says all clear. And that takes a long time ... so long story short, they didn't get it all, and that's why you are getting radiation.

3. Now, one more, possibly touchy area as it relates to what you may be told by forum members. In my case I was told radiation only, no chemo (by my tumor board). Several members of the forum took exception to that, rather forcefully, by saying that no, you need chemo too. This put me right in the middle between them and the combined opinion of all members of my tumor board. This caused a fair amount of consternation on my part and took awhile to resolve. But, in the end, our forum members are not doctors and I had to decide if I agreed (ie trusted) my doctors. And that was a no brainer, I had trusted my RO from day one, so I had no problem choosing and agreeing with his opinion over the forums opinion. I hope this doesn't happen to you. I know our forum members are only trying to help, even if helping sometimes creates other problems too.

I've rambled on long enough, I'll be watching your thread to see how all this comes out.

take care

Tony