I didn’t have any choice in my neurologist. My mom made sure I saw the same one as my older brother ( his was genetic and he has outgrown it), so that’s how I met him. And mom always insisted that she was in the room and she answered all the questions. I wasn’t allowed to say anything. She started walking into the room on my 4th trip to see him and he stopped her and told her to go back to the waiting room and wait and she was very angry. Anyways I kept that dr until he retired. My second one ( current), I also didn’t have a choice. I had to take the first one at the clinic in Edmonton that was available and not the dr I had already made an appointment with after researching his credentials, patient reviews etc. So u can imagine my surprise when I walked in, said I had an appt with dr ——- , and they told me it was with someone else. He’s very blunt- which I appreciate and like, but the only criticism would be that the only way he will do with my dr’s in Inuvik is an email. And my last 3 appts were nothing but a phone call. For some reason he stopped doing the teleconference at the hospital so he just phones - not even FaceTime, messenger or any other face chat. That bothers me. That and he refuses to speak on anything except for the epilepsy. I had called and asked if a couple new prescribed medications would work with my other meds. I was told yes by his head nurse. Turned out that one of them would have killed me almost immediately, and the other was the one that I broke everything and messed with my brain. Thankfully I had called the manufacturer of the one that would have killed me so I didn’t touch it and I already said what happened with the other one. So while I love his straight to the point attitude and knowledge, I wish he would communicate better. 3 yrs ago he did tell me not to take the first med; and I laughed. I looked him square in the eye and said I’m still alive so obviously I researched it better than u. He agreed.

It's hard to find the "right" opinion. When I turned 18, I had to start seeing another neurologist because I was too old for "children's hospital". The first neurologist I saw was terrible so I switched to a local neurologist who was a little better but still seemed to be limited in his knowledge of epilepsy. A co-worker then showed me a newspaper article on an epileptologist and after reading the article, he sounded like someone who cares about his patients. For the first time, I was being tested. I know it was four parts but I don't remember what each part was. One was looking at a checkerboard screen and trying to follow a red dot as the squares went back and forth black to white. Another was having my wrists and ankles attached to a machine sending shocks.

Anyway, it took a while to find it but I found the person and opinions I was looking for.

When I have had operations, I have asked for a second opinion to help me feel safer.

My seizures are so infrequent that I feel that I would waste time getting a second opinion. I had two really good neurologists for over 30 years that I would never thought of getting a second opinion from. I was treated by a PA and was convinced he was practicing unsafe medicine and left the practice. It does’t help that I was about 2 steps away from being fired from the practice anyway.