HI Ingy,
I used to ski in your area and later over at Horseshoe Heights. Half my family is up in Barrie now so i know they had difficulty find a gp.
About being glued to the pc after hearing about the An.... i was on mine for hours after I found out! That first weekend I found all sorts of information and after joining ANAC what was so very helpful was talking by phone with various people who had had treatment in all the various modalities... surgery, Gk, FSR. Then I also talked a lot with a CK patient. So by the time I went in to talk with my neuro and ent guy I already had lots of information. It helped because at least the words and some of the teminolgy was now familiar. What I liked about my neurotologist was the time he took to explain the different approaches taken in surgery plus he also talked about radiation treatment and quickly set up appts for the fsr and the gk. I could have begun the fsr earlier as i certainly knew in my gut that that was what I wanted but I had made this other appt with a second surgeon rationalizing that i should hear as much as i could etc. But I never did see that guy as there was a wait and i knew hwat I wanted so I cancelled that and had the fsr set in motion. I want to say that both my fsr doctor and my ear doctor have been very helpful and caring in all follow ups after treatment. Half the battle is knowing you are in good hands and feeling this is "right". Plus staff at both places are wonderful. At least that's my experience. Even some of my friends who were present at treatment still may comment on the amazing care shown by the staff there.
The BT Foundation is interesting in that they have the vieods of those speeches from the conferecnes and the doctors speaking are in the top of their field. Some of them are really amazing. Even the surgeon who is involved in the GK here is astonishing in what he can do in surgery. And my neurotologist teaches the new docs coming up too. There are always "fellows" around who come from all over the world.
Don't forget to sleep at night lol.... sometimes i got so caught up in searches i'd be up most of the night. Things settle down once you make a decision and a certain calm arrives.
Take care,
