Hi Richard and welcome.... great replies you are receiving here and as many know, I publically went through this process of "how do you choose?" or "what is best?". It's a very difficult question to try to answer and in my opinion, many here on this thread have touched on the important points.
Like you, I was in wait and watch mode... for a year. Mine progressively grew, so my decision making process had to occur soon. For me (and as many here note), I tried to take the following into consideration:
1. My lifestyle
2. My symptoms at time of the decision making process
3. Do I want to cut it out of my head and be rid of it or....can I handle the thought of it dying in my head.
4. Treatment teams
5. Different surgical approaches
6. Different radio-surgery approaches/stats/accurracy.
It really does boil down to personal choice.
Many here know that I lost a sister to a malignant brain tumor. My family, obviously, was rather thrown when they found out there was a 2nd sibling with a brain tumor, although benign and treatable. My family's attitude was "if it don't belong, cut it out". For me, my attitude was "well, if plan A doesn't work, I know I can go to plan B" and "I'd rather try non-invasive first and if it fails, then, I can go invasive".
I had my reasons for having radio-surgery done that worked best for me. In my opinion, if you ask yourself the questions noted above and sit down and really think about these questions and what is the comfort level for you, then your decision should come fairly easy to you.
Regardless of what you decide, know that that you never question your decision, have faith in your treatment team and treatment approach... and know that all of us cheer you on.
Hang in there and welcome.
Phyl
