Hi! I'm originally from NM (ABQ)
I'm currently living in Arkansas and was diagnosed with an AN just last month. I've just sent my records to St Joseph's Hospital in PHX to see about being treated there.
My sister who lives in PHX had also suggested Mayo, but I came across info about the Barrow Institute/St Joseph's Hospital.
I'm not sure about the insurance issues, since my insurance isn't going to cover any of my treatment anyway.
Have you talked to your insurance company about the treatment issues? If your tumor can be treated with radiation, I would think that would generally be less complicated and dangerous than surgery.
I just went online and searched for info on ANs and about the different options, from different types of surgery (depending on how good your hearing is, for example) , to the different type of radiation treatment,
Since I'm a professional orchestral musician, who plays a woodwind instrument, surgery is pretty much out of the question because the two things I need to preserve--my hearing (which is in very good shape) and my facial nerve--are the very things you can lose in surgery, so my local docs here suggested radiation.
While I could have had it done locally, I really wanted to go somewhere where I felt the docs were most experienced or specialized, so I chose Barrow. Since my sisters live in PHX and my parents can easily come down from ABQ, it makes sense on that level as well as on the medical level.
So I guess what I'm saying is that you have to figure out whether surgery or radiation will work best for you, and that's gong to depend on the size and placement of your tumor, the degree or severity of your symptoms, and what sort of outcome the doctors are looking at for you.
I know that radiation might not kill or stop my tumor, and in a year or so if it is still growing, I may end up having to have some kind of surgery, but at this point in my life, radiation makes the most sense.
You'll have to assess what will work best for you, but don't let the insurance company decide what kind of treatment you're going to have. That's a decision you'll have to make for your own sake.
I'm probably going to be paying for this procedure for the rest of my life, but I feel this is what I need for my life. I'm very blessed that I have friends and family who are willing to help me as much as they can.
I'm looking into self-pay discounts and possibly setting up some kind of payment plan if the hospital will work with me on that, but at this point I'm still waiting to see if they'll take me on and what treatment they think will be best.
Good luck! There is a folder here with physician/hospital links, which is where I found Barrow.
