Just found out yesterday....

[Samantha n Adrian]

Thank you for sharing your story Robyn. It is definitely a heavy burden deciding whose hands you're going to put your fate in! I am SO glad your son's surgery went wonderfully and that you are completely satisfied with your decision and outcome.  

Steve - Thank you for those links. They both look very impressive on paper! That kind of experience is comforting to know. I did a search on here for Dr. Bartels and didn't come up with much so I guess just none of his patients are on the forum. That is okay though, we will just get to be the first!

We will without a doubt be posting our entire experience when it is done.  

Sam~

[robynabc]

Adrian just want you to know that there are good results with tumors this size.  That was important for us to know.   I know that the wait is difficult.  You just want it to be over with.   We made use of the time to do some unconventional treatments to see if that would help the outcome.  We will never know if that was what helped our outcome but I tend to think so.    You both sound very positive.   Everything will be fine.   

[leapyrtwins]

Robyn -

It's wonderful to hear your son is doing so well; he's been through a lot - and at such a young age.  It sounds like you did a great job of finding the best treatment for him.  I know from posts on this forum that everyone seems to talk about House, and it sounds like a wonderful place, but there are also other very great options out there.  The key is finding a good doc with the right experience - good bedside manner or not - and your son is living proof of that.  My neurotologist is a fantastic doctor and good guy (love him to pieces), but I find him much too serious    I'm big on humor, especially in scary situations (like my AN surgery), and I had a hard time getting him to crack a smile.  Despite that, my gut feeling was that he was the one to do the job and I was right. 

Jan 

[Samantha n Adrian]

Hello All….this is Adrian.  I apologize for taking so long to write…..lots going on.  I also needed some time to think.  This forum is wonderful, so full of information, but there comes a time when one needs some alone time to filter thru all of the information and land on a decision.

Upon a recommendation from a surgeon acquaintance of mine, he recommended Dr. Bartels in Tampa, FL.  The recommendation is of very strong value.  Dr. Rechtine was the Director of Spine at Shand’s in Gainesville, FL and is now the Director at U of Rochester.  The Neurosurgeon is Dr. van Loveren.  Click the links on both of their names and you can read a little about them.  Calling Dr. Bartel’s resume stellar is an insult.  The man has accomplished more in one week than most people accomplish in a lifetime.

I have yet to speak to either of them, but Dr. Bartels and I have had lots of email dialogue and his emails are impressive.  He is definitely a teacher.  His answers are very educational, not just an answer to a symptom.

I have a meeting with the both surgeons on the 15th of August and surgery is tentatively scheduled for the 6th of September.  Oddly enough, Dr. Bartels has performed about 500 AN surgeries and over 600 skull based surgeries during his career, but there are virtually no posts regarding him on this forum.  I did email and speak to screen name Runnergirl who had the exact same team and she can’t say enough good things about Dr. Bartels.  She is a tri-athlete and has a good post-op even though she has facial paralyzation.

If there is anyone else who used Dr. Bartels, please post on my forum or send me a personal message, I’d love to hear your experience.

I know this is reiterating Sam’s last post, but this is all for information that I have right now.  More will come after the 15th when I meet the surgeons.

Thank you once again for all of the information and all of the support.

Adrian

[robynabc]

HI Adrian, 

Good for you.  Your surgeons sound excellent.  Just so you know the surgeons we picked were not anywhere to be found on this forum.  The surgeons themselves had told us of many large tumors they had done it seems like they had done one a every week or two but no one on this list mentioned them.  I think that the opinions of other respected doctors is a good gauge.  It worked in our case.  You really sound like you are doing a fantastic job of researching.  Good luck.  This is hardest time.  Getting a date so early is great.  We had to wait a month after we picked our doctors.  Seemed like forever. 

[Samantha n Adrian]

I did not do the links correctly regarding the surgeons.....let's try this again

Dr. Bartels http://www.tampabayhearing.com/PeopleBartels.aspx
Dr. van Loveren http://www.societyns.org/society/bio.asp?MemberID=176

Talk to everyone soon.

Adrian

[robynabc]

HI Adrian,

Those are very impressive credentials.  Just a note,  Our Head and Neck surgeon also studied in Zurich.  In fact,  he went there the day after Eric's surgery for a conference.  Apparently,  that is a good place to learn.   I personally really like the Educational setting.  Those guys look pretty good from their website.  I would just make sure they do many of these tumors and maybe ask about past results from large tumors. 

Here are the links to our surgeons. If ti helps.

http://www.uchsc.edu/otolaryngology/faculty/Jenkins.html