I'm in the driver's seat

Dr. S, the neurosurgeon from the House Clinic, called me at work today. Here are his thoughts:

• Since I am 26, it must be treated; no watch and wait. He would be reluctant to do radiation on a young person, but it could be done. His recommendation would be surgery.
• He felt that the shape of the tumor looks unfavorable for saving the hearing.
• In terms of his recommended approach, he felt that the tumor was slightly too large to attempt middle fossa, as it would increase the risk to the facial nerve. He wouldn't do retrosigmoid either because it would be difficult to get it all out of the IAC. He thought that translab would be the best way to get it all, but that I might want to wait until we established that it was actually growing.
• He thought that I should get an MRI every three months until we see growth compared to the first MRI.
• His suggestions for reasonable "next steps" were: 1) wait for growth, then do translab, 2) do translab now, and 3) do retrosigmoid now.

I liked how Dr. S didn't just repeat verbatim what Dr. F had told me earlier and that he was able to offer additional things to think about. I liked that he offered options; I felt like I was more in control of what was happening to me instead of feeling like I was being steered into doing just what the doctors thought.

I was considering going out to the House Clinic in Los Angeles at this point, but I wanted to hear what Dr. J said locally before I made any commitments one way or the other.

(In the interest of full disclosure, this post was actually written on 1/30/09.)