Exceptional customer service

Dr. F, a neuro-otolaryngologist (ENT) from the House Ear Clinic, called me today. We had a pretty long conversation, around an hour or so. These are some notes from that discussion.

• Surgery is the best option for a 26-year-old; he would definitely not watch-and-wait or have radiation.
• My hearing nerve is crushed and unresponsive.
• In his opinion, the tumor is slightly too big to preserve hearing.
• The goals of surgery, in order of importance, are 1) save the life, 2) remove all of the tumor, 3) preserve the facial nerve, and 4) save the hearing.
• The retrosigmoid approach is very complicated and would not be a good option for my situation because it would be difficult to remove all of the tumor in the internal auditory canal (IAC).
• He would recommend either translab or the middle fossa approach but thinks translab would be best because the tumor is slightly too big for middle fossa, plus the hearing nerve probably isn't worth trying to save and there would be an increased risk to the facial nerve.

Dr. F said he would have Dr. S, a neurosurgeon, give me a call to discuss my case, and that he would give me another call in a couple days after he consulted with Dr. S as well.

(In the interest of full disclosure, this post was actually written on 1/29/09.)