Pre-Treatment Options > Pre-Treatment Options

Beginning Stages of Research

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pearchica:
Hey Gang: I am a recently diagnosed vestibular Shwannoma.  I have been researching for about 3 weeks now. My original surgeon in Sacramento is recommending surgery to debulk the majority tumor and then gamma knife the rest so my facial nerves are preserved. I have sent my MIR's to the House Institute (Los Angeles, CA) and I am also going to go to Stanford ENT(Palo Alto, CA) for more information.  Any sources I should consider for further research?  By the way this forum as been a world of relief. I wish I had logged on 3 weeks ago.  I made the mistake of telling my family prior to my consulation with the surgeon and consequently gave the family some outdated information ie: 16 hours of surgery according to the ENT guy when in fact it is 3-5 on average.  (Family also was visualizing coffin depsite my reassurance that this is a BENIGN tumor ;D).   My balance test shows that my right ear is compensating for my left (where the VS is). Overall I feel no rush to get this thing out, I don't have dizziness, I do have hearing loss (about 50%) and really compared to the other maladies out there, I feel like I am getting off good. (Easy to say now as I haven't done surgery, gamma or ck).Thanks in advance for your support and hard work.

tony:
Good luck in your search - can I just say beware surgery prediction times
sometimes the person making the prediction means
how long their "bit" is....ignoring the fact that
the team that follows to patch up/finish off
may take another two hours or more
- in any case its not a job to rush to finish early
Family may panic a bit if they think things are running behind the clock
keep it vague
Best regards
Tony

Lorenzo:
Welcome to the family. You seem to have a few goood options alright, and the right attitude. Just to let you know, Dr Chang at Stanford does both radiosurgery and microsurgery, so he might be a good person to talk to.
Good luck with your search.
Lorenzo

Desilu:
Hi,

It seems that you have picked some of the best places around. Please make sure that you are comfortable with your doctors, you are putting your life in their hands. Go with your gut feeling. I wish you the best with your research. If you choose to go the surgery route, I can help you with that (House). Just shoot me an email. If not, there are a bunch of people on this site that can help you with the less evasive route. Good luck to you!  Ann

Obita:
Welcome to the forum Pearchica:

It sounds like you are well on your way in finding the right doctor for the job. 

Have you read anything on the Skull Base Institute?  If you decide on surgery, you might want to give them a look.  There have been a few forum members that have had surgery there recently and they are very happy with the results.  At SBI, they use the endoscopic approach so the hole in the skull is the size of a dime.

Hopefully, your AN is in such a place that radiation can be an option for you.  Surgery is no picnic, but its not the end of the world either.  If you have surgical questions, you can write to me anytime.  I am the same as I was before surgery only I am tumorless (yippee) but deaf in the left.

Good luck and I will be watching for updates!!  Kathy

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