Before Your Appointment

Prepare for your visit – what to bring and what to expect.

When your appointment is made you will receive an email with a link to an online form. Please fill this form out prior to your appointment.

If you are unable to fill in the online form prior to coming in please bring:

• Your Medicare/DVA card
• Private health insurance information
• A list of current medications

Your initial appointment will be booked for 45 minutes. During this time your current medical issue, as well as previous medical history, operations and family history will be discussed. You will nearly always have an abdominal and pelvic examination including a speculum and vaginal examination. Additional biopsies or tests may be taken at the time.

For our fees please see the Fees and Payment page.

You will receive a text message in the days prior to your appointment. Please call us on 0478 570 901 if you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment so that we can offer the appointment to another patient.

Preparing for your appointment

Coming to an appointment with a cancer surgeon can be very stressful. Please consider bringing a support person to the appointment with you. They should be someone who will be helpful if the news is bad or good (support person: please see tips below).

During your appointment

• Absorbing all the information is hard.
• It is OK to ask questions more than once 
• If you need to take a break and a minute to absorb anything it’s OK to ask.
• What is the key message?
• Have I understood it?
• Can I describe it to my loved ones?
• Feel free to write notes or even record the conversation if you like. Rare cancers Australia has a free app to download on their website. This allows recording and was designed by people with cancer for people going through a cancer diagnosis and treatment. Rare Cancers Australia – CAN.Recall App

Support person

Before the appointment please consider:

• What do I know about what is going on?
• How serious is this and will I be able to cope with this situation?
• Do they want me to be present? Am I the best person to be here?
  
  

Observe the conversation.

• How can I best grasp all the information delivered during the conversation?
• What roles can and should I take on? Ask the person who is directly impacted.
• Bear with the situation.
• The rhythm of the conversation should be dictated only by the recipient and bearer of the difficult news.
• What is the essential message? Have I understood it?
  
  

After the conversation.

• Once it is over, offer to discuss the conversation and summary again. If, however, the person no longer wishes to talk about it for the moment, this should also be respected. Try to focus on providing practical assistance, such as organizing a ride home or shopping.
• Don’t pressure yourself to immediately come up with perfect solutions.
  
  

Have a look at our how to help page.