Dr. Costantino offered to help me with my right sided jugular compression, but when the scheduler called, I was told that Dr. Stieg from Cornell would be the neurosurgeon on my case. Dr. Costantino mentioned Dr. Tobias as my neurosurgeon during my consult, but for some reason they are saying Dr. Stieg was selected. The problem I have is that I do not know of any jugular decompression cases where Dr. Stieg helped a patient with IJV compression. I also have really bad brain fog, so I wanted Dr. Tobias as my neurosurgeon since I have heard of his patient’s getting relief from brain fog. Patients on this site and facebook have both referenced Dr. Tobias.
Has anyone had Dr. Stieg work with Dr. Costantino and what happened? The way the scheduler told me was something along the lines of Dr. Stieg needing to work occasionally on patients to keep connections open with Dr. Costantino. How is that my responsibility to be the odd one out in this case and have Dr. Stieg work with me when most jugular patients work with Dr. Lo or Dr. Tobias? If anyone has advice, let me know. I have waited a very long time for this surgery, and I need this one to help.
That’s hard when you’ve researched a doctor & are confident with them & to have that change…ultimately it’s up to you as a patient, the doctors are working for you so I presume you could say if you don’t want Dr Stieg, but presumably it would mean a longer wait time. I don’t recall anyone on here mentioning Dr Stieg assisting, it’s usually been Dr Tobias or Dr Lo others have mentioned. I would presume that a skilled surgeon like Dr Costantino wouldn’t work with another doctor who wasn’t a good surgeon, but it’s your decision & I totally agree that it’s important to get it done right, so this should be your call. Hope that you can sort something out
@IJVHelp I might contact Dr. Stieg’s office directly to find out about his experience with this surgery. If you aren’t confident about her/him then go with your gut.
I saw Dr. Stieg after surgery at Cornell & he is great, probably one of the best in the country. That being said I think you’re right to question involvement in this surgery bc skilled or not, the neurosurgeon part comes down to experience in this specific procedure, imo. Definitely okay to voice your concern & to go with what feels more comfortable to you, especially if you were expecting Dr. Tobias
I’m sorry that you’re having to deal with something different than what you expected. i didn’t really know much about the neurosurgeons when I met with Dr. Costantino initially. He did have Dr. Tobias come in during the consultation, so that was when I learned more about him (although I did read about him on this forum). It looks like Dr. Stieg has a lot of experience in skull base surgery, but i have not heard of anyone on this forum having him as the neurosurgeon for IJV decompression surgery, but that is not to say that he hasn’t done them before. If you feel strongly about Dr. Tobias or Dr. Lo being the neurosurgeon I would start with asking the scheduler what the timeline would be if you were going to try to schedule surgery with one of them… You may also be able to talk with one of the nurses or physician assistants to find out how you would go about requesting a particular neurosurgeon. Also, I’m not sure how they decide which neurosurgeon works with Dr. C, but they may have certain criteria that they look at when making a decision. Also, you could call Dr. Tobias’ office directly and inquire about your situation & see what they suggest. I know that there is a lot of stress involved in even getting to the point of scheduling the surgery, so a change of surgeon can just add more to that. I hope that you get it all figured out to where you are comfortable with your surgical team. Please let us know what you decide to do.
Hey, I just wanted to provide an update. I did end up being able to work with Dr. Tobias and Dr. Costantino. However, they need more imaging so I will need to hold off on surgery until I get another CTV head neck.
@IJVHelp - I’m really glad it’s worked out for you to have your surgery w/ Drs. Costantino & Tobias. I’m glad Dr. C is having you get the CTV as that will help further clarify details of your situation so he can do the best possible surgery to help you. Thank you for your update.
