Keep reading this site. Lots to learn, and your opinion is going to go back and forth as you learn more, but that is ok. First, whatever you do, look for places that are actually acoustic neuroma centers. You want people who have done a lot of these and if they won't tell you how many, move on. Your first doctor clearly screwed up. I was lucky since I went to a doctor who ran a large ear clinic and he ran every test (not really happy about it at first) they had, but he diagnosed it right away. To treat, after considering the different approaches, I looked up the best doctors for each approach (depends a lot on your insurance). Your age will be a big factor. If you are young (less that 50) most people will recommend surgery because even though there is lots of data on 10 year control for radiation (it is excellent), there is not as much data on 15-20 or longer. You don't want these things coming back because treatment is harder by any method. The major treatments are surgery and the best surgeons are in LA (House clinic, Dr. Friedman), but other places are excellent, and radiation. There are generally three types of radiation, Gamma knife (the oldest), cyber knife (very recent) and proton therapy (newest). Gamma knife has an outstanding track record, with 40 years of data. Cyber knife has very similar outcomes in terms of control (>90%), and is a little easier to take as there is not a head frame involved, and the imaging is a little different. Proton therapy is very new, and it is something I would be inclined to let others go first until there is substantial data. For gamma knife, one of the best places in the world is University of Pittsburgh (Dr. Lunsford, trained with the inventor), which may be close to you. For Cyber knife, go to Stanford and Dr. Chang. Not sure who the expert is on Proton therapy. But each of those doctors has been discussed here at length so just search the threads.
