Not good news, Not bad news, just news....

I went to see the specialist today. First I was given a hearing test, which they put me in a room which was bizarre in itself, it reminded me of the popular optical illusions that you stared at it long enough, an object would appear. Anyways, the room was very weird. They did several hearing tests along with the word discrimination test and I did well on both, minor loss in my left ear but overall good. The audiologist conducting the test mentioned the nurse that would take my information had an acoustic neuroma and would share her experience. After the hearing tests we went into an exam room and the nurse, Ericia came in to document my symptoms, she gave me a handout for a support group and a copy of a book she wrote about her experience. Next, the doctor came in, he went over my scans and we saw my tumor (Lloyd). The doctor was impressed that I had already spoken with House Ear Institute and said I was getting good information. He basically said everything that I have read, my three options are:
1. Wait and Watch
2. Radiation
3. Surgery

He wants to run some more tests to find out more about the tumor, then he would give a recommendation but it would more than likely be watch and wait, then have an MRI in 6 months to see if there is any growth. Ideally, I want the tumor to not grow at all. I asked him what the goals are when you have this kind of tumor, they are:
1. Save your life
2. Save neurological function
3. Save facial nerve to avoid facial paralysis
4. Save hearing

It is almost a guarantee, I will lose my hearing so the first three are key. Obviously I would love to have my hearing in that ear but if I had to decide between my hearing and facial paralysis, I would give up my hearing. He did say that there is no way to find out how close the tumor is to my facial nerve unless he does surgery. He did stress that mine is small, however I was hoping that since it was small I would have more treatment options and less damage would be done. I go back in two weeks for 3 hours of balance testing. As I checked out, the nurse said my insurance didn't cover one of the tests and my amount is $108 to be paid that day....lovely! Even with insurance this is expensive, my portion of an MRI is $190, so I will have that expense twice a year, along with other things related to this. What else is next?

'So it wasn't good news, not bad news, just news.

Thank you for all your support!