My husband and I are leaving Ohio for Denver on May 5 to meet with Dr. Arenson. This will be our first visit. We will then return home, and he will begin treatment (again) with a consulting medical oncologist at a local office. We are close to a major brain tumor center--The Cleveland Clinic--but chose not to go there due to past experiences. Our choice has been to stay away from the major centers as much as possible for several reasons. We feel like we get more personal service and avoid the extensive waits in offices (hopefully). Also, major centers often want to steer you towards clinical trials and have hospital protocols they have to follow that may not necessarily be best suited for everyone. I don't want to appear that I am bashing any of the major centers. I have a lot of respect for medical professionals, but I also know how my husband operates. Sitting for hours in gigantic hospital waiting rooms won't happen. That doesn't mean that in the future we won't have to change our game plan again and perhaps go to The Cleveland Clinic or some other major medical center. I just feel this is the best choice for us right now.
Dealing with Dr. Arenson's office and setting up an appointment has been extremely easy. Everyone I have talked to on the phone including Dr. Arenson himself have been more than accomodating. Initially, I sent my husband's records to the doctor in January. He called me himself and recommended we do several things before we consider traveling to Denver. This has all worked out very well and now we are ready to make the trip.
This is a very confusing and overwhelming disease. The route I have taken is to do as much research as I can and then use that info to make a gut decision. I think if wrote a brief medical history and copied the CD's of the MRI's then you could "overnight" the info to the doctor and at least get some more input. Perhaps at that point you will decide to stay with your current treatment plan or maybe you'll decide to change.