UCLA MEDICAL CTR

Yesterday was a long day.We had an appointment at the UCLA medical center and met with one of the best young doctors on the West Coast. He was a lot more cautious about calling this thing In my head a glioma...he agrees it is definitely a tumor but there's no proof that it is cancerous by looking at it, and he reserves the term glioma cancer.

He did make me feel better about getting a biopsy however. He says it's not as scary as I was thinking. In his words, any neurosurgeon can do it, it's like brain surgery 101.this Dr.'s name Isaac Yang and he had the best bedside manner and personality of anybody we have met! He apologized for you having to charge for the visit and actually had the receptionist give half the cost Back! Dr. Yang is a brain tumor specialist and has written publications about doing such. Unfortunately though, he just cannot operate on this. He also agreed with the Kaiser Dr. that it is not a candidate for radiosurgery.

He did however spend a lot of time with this, and even put us in touch with another Dr. that is a UCLA graduate and is now on the Kaiser system. It's too bad this other doctor is not in San Diego though, or I would have him do the biopsy. Dr. Yang even gave us his cell phone number and told me to call any time we have a question.I've never been so blown away by A doctor caring so much and taking so much time to explain things. I cannot recommend UCLA medical center highly enough.

So that makes three neurosurgeons' opinions and I feel like I have spent enough time looking for the silver bullet. Now it's all about getting treatment for this and getting on with my life. I will no longer just chase doctors and have tests done or ask for more Opinions. I want this biopsy done and whenever the treatment is afterwards, so the Lorraine and I can put this chapter in our lives behind us.