Dr. Thomas: Doctors want to give you the information you need to make good medical decisions. But sometimes we get busy and you might not get all the information you need. So, it is important to be prepared to ask for more information. Ask your doctors about the risks, the benefits, and other treatment choices available to you. You should also ask what your life will be like after starting new medication or treatment.

Dr. Garcia: It’s OK to ask questions. It’s our job to answer them.

Ken: I had surgery on my knee last year. Before the surgery, I didn’t ask some really important questions. You know, like “what are the risks of the surgery?” or “if I don’t have the surgery, what other choices do I have?” What I really should have asked was, "what would my life be like AFTER the surgery?"

I didn’t know that the recovery would take so long or that I couldn’t live on my own during that time. I also didn’t know that the pain would be so bad. The surgery wasn’t an emergency and if I had asked these questions, maybe I wouldn’t have gone through with it.

David: I had to make decisions for my aunt when she was in the intensive care unit. I was so scared because I had never talked to doctors for someone else before. I wish I had been prepared with the questions to ask the doctors—such as what are the risks of treatment, what are the benefits, and what are the alternatives to the treatments the doctors were recommending.

And, most importantly, what would my aunt’s life be like AFTER all of this treatment? Will she be able to get out of bed?

If I had been prepared to ask those questions, making decisions and working with the doctors would have been so much easier.