Good point.  

I went to the University of Michigan for a 2nd opinion, and that's where
I got my surgery.   But they wouldn't let me make an appointment
directly with a surgeon.   I first had to make an appointment to go to
their Thursday clinic for people who have been diagnosed with PCa, where
they made sure I talked with both a surgeon and a radiation guy.   They
maybe offer other options, too, but it turned out those were the ones
they wanted me to consider.  

It took several weeks just to get into the Clinic.   My alarm-sounding
PSA (4.79) came on 11-Sep-2001.  By mid October I had a diagnosis of
PCa  (T1c, Gleason 3+4, I think).  The urologist (a surgeon) recommended
surgery.   I wanted a 2nd opinion, but I wasn't sure how to go about it,
and wasted a couple of days wondering what to do next.    Then I found
the UofM web site, and knew from that just who I wanted to do my
surgery.

But there was a long wait getting into the clinic.   They held their
sessions for prospective new patients each Thursday afternoon, and I had
to wait until mid-December to get in.   The wait made my wife nervous.  
I remember the day pretty well.  A day or so before, I had learned that
my biopsy slides hadn't reached the proper destination, and I was
nervous wondering if they would make me do another biopsy, which would
mean more delay.   But the slides were eventually tracked down -- they
had been delivered to a completely wrong address on campus.  Then we had
some car trouble from a previous repair.   My wife insisted that the
dealer/shop get it fixed right away so we could make it to Ann Arbor in
time for our appointment, making it sound like a life and death matter.  

In Ann Arbor, after talking to everybody we were supposed to talk to at
the clinic, including the surgeon and radiation oncologist, we decided
on surgery.   There would be another 6 week's wait.  (Actually, they
insisted that I think about it for a couple of days before deciding.)
My wife was nervous about waiting yet another 6 weeks.   The surgeon
said if he thought it really necessary for me to have my surgery right
away, he would find some way to do it.   But I didn't see that I had any
grounds to try to push my way in front of other people who were waiting
in line.   And in the end my post-surgery diagnosis pretty much matched
the pre-surgery one.    

Anyhow, that should give people an idea of how at least one shop
operates.  Maybe it'll be helpful to someone as a point of comparison.  

JohnG