Questions For Your Doctors
Your role as the EC-patient

You will have to do a lot of soul searching as you come to terms with this disease. Most medicine is designed to restore the body to normal. With EC, particularly EC with surgery, the goal is to prolong life in a body that is not too severely altered to allow a good quality of life. Here are some questions you may wish to consider.

1. Do I really want to know all the details of this disease? Some people "freeze" when they are presented with too much dreadful information. Other people need to feel they can take charge of their situation and want information? How much is too much?
2. Do I have limitations and considerations which make an ideal treatment from a doctor's point of view impossible for me?
3. Do my religious beliefs dictate abstinence from certain medical practices?
4. Do I have psychological problems which make me dread certain procedures so much that I cannot go through with them?
5. Am I "brave" enough to go through with aggressive treatments? Will I need special mood altering drugs to allow me to handle this dread?
6. Do concerns for my remaining quality of life have overriding importance such that I'd rather avoid certain procedures with my remaining lifespan? Am I facing this question squarely with knowledge that I am probably terminal or am I using QOL as a crutch to avoid making a decision?
7. Do I really intend to travel to some remote medical center or do I simply wish to stay near friends and family even at the risk that I may get less than optimal treatment?
8. What are my financial considerations? Can I afford to be out of work for extended periods? How will my family fair if I die? What is my insurance situation? Am I covered?
9. Will I make timely decisions or will I procrastinate? Am I in denial or am I ready to challenge EC? Will I need assistance to achieve long term emotional stability and steadfastness with this disease?
10. Have I made living wills, directives, normal wills and financial arrangements "just in case"? Have I prepared for my family to continue on without me? How will I explain this all to my minor children? Grandchildren?