Thanks to everyone for their advice and concern. It's helpful. Visited a doctor this morning. We went over the options. With my age and size of tumor I am a good candidate for the gamma knife that Providence Medical Center has in Portland. He does not advise waiting and he thinks surgery should be my last option. My cousin is a nurse and she called me last night to give me all sorts of advice. She asked me about the doctors and if I'd checked them out and looked at my options and it's my decision and yada, yada, yada. I told her I go to the doctors that the other doctors tell me to go to, and that my "informed decision" would be about like if somebody told her, "Tomorrow you are going to Mars, which rocket do you want to take? The fast one or the other fast one? But you're going to Mars one way or another, so make a decision!" The only game in town is at Providence and I'll be going over to talk to the people who will be doing the procedure (along with this other doctor I talked to this AM.) I will be putting my faith into these people. I don't want to wait, because that will allow the damn thing to settle in more, and I don't want surgery because the risks are too great, so the only other choice in my area is the gamma knife. My doctor, who is very nice, said that Acoustic Neuromas are the most studied brain tumor and if I had to pick a brain tumor that was the one to get. I'd rather not pick one, but this one picked me, so gotta deal with it - by trying to kill the bugger. And in Portland/Vancouver, this is the only weapon.
