The Surgical Consult – Oct. 23

On Oct. 12 Jeff and I met with two doctors at the U of M Hospital – Dr. Haines (a neurologist) and Dr. Levine (an ENT). Dr. Haines and Levine partner on acoustic neuroma surgeries and have been doing so for about 20 years. After waiting for them for over an hour we spent the next hour and a half learning about the surgical procedure, the risks, complications and the long-term affects. Haines and Levine also do gamma knife treatments so we discussed that procedure as well. Their information on gamma knife greatly differed from what we had heard when meeting with Dr. S. They said there’s a 20 percent chance of the tumor returning after gamma knife and that those numbers are “published national averages” so they weren’t sure why Dr. S had shared the one percent return rate with us.

I asked a lot of questions and Jeff took a lot of notes and at the end of the appointment they said I was one of the most thorough patients they’d had in a while, which I decided to take as a compliment. This appointment was the most overwhelming and emotional one yet and afterwards both Jeff and I were both feeling it. I think it was the first time we were really forced to face the reality that the surgery was probably the best option for me and what this would mean for us in the upcoming months/years. Without going into all of the details, the main reason we think surgery is the best option is that neither of us want this tumor to return. In addition to that we learned that after gamma knife strange side affects and complications can show up for years such as facial paralysis and numbness, balance issues and a number of other unpleasant side affects. These things are also risks with the surgery, but the surgeons said basically what you get coming out of the surgery is what you have for the rest of your life. Also, with surgery there’s a one to three percent chance the tumor can return, but in 20 years the surgeons haven’t seen a tumor of my “class and size” return.

After leaving this appointment Jeff and I both decided we should seek a second opinion at the Mayo Clinic. My ENT has told me the surgeons at the U of M are just as great as those at Mayo (and I believe this). But because we have received such differing opinions on the gamma knife treatment and because Mayo is so close we think it’s good idea to seek their opinion. We have a consult scheduled at Mayo on Dec. 19.