I've had a couple of second opinions for far less serious stuff in recent years. In both cases the original doctors suggested major surgery pre-emptively, even though they were very different types of thing.
In the first case, I decided to talk to an expert in the particular area who then ordered different tests. These indicated the issue had actually gone away completely, and I avoided surgery as a result of those.
In the other, a grade 2 ACL tear, it was less clear-cut, but I felt like the explanations given by the second doctor as to why he'd recommend against surgery were clearer and made more sense to me.
I'm glad I got both second opinions and the first case in particular, made me much more likely to get second opinions in future as well as more confident about doing so.
In the first case, I decided to talk to an expert in the particular area who then ordered different tests. These indicated the issue had actually gone away completely, and I avoided surgery as a result of those.
In the other, a grade 2 ACL tear, it was less clear-cut, but I felt like the explanations given by the second doctor as to why he'd recommend against surgery were clearer and made more sense to me.
I'm glad I got both second opinions and the first case in particular, made me much more likely to get second opinions in future as well as more confident about doing so.