Decades ago, women were wheeled into the operating room not knowing if they would wake up with a breast still in place or not. Today, there's a great deal of emphasis on the doctor and patient sharing the decision-making process. There's also a lot more information available. While having power and information is a good thing, it can also be very stressful. In the short run, making your own decisions may seem more difficult, but in the long term you're less likely to feel anxious and depressed about what's happened to you if you took an active part in the decision-making process.
Patients are so much more involved with the entire process today than in the past.
There's just more stuff to do before you have surgery, and that's because there are so many more options available. On the flip side, there are many more consultations that you need to coordinate. It was two weeks before I could get an appointment with the surgeon I wanted. During those two weeks, it was like time stood still. I used that time to learn all I could.