Aug. 1-4: Hong Kong and the Resolution of the Final Doubts

Back in early July, after I learned of my condition and the possibly risky treatment and potentially lengthy recovery, I resigned from my job of the last four years. We agreed with my employers that July 31, 2009 would be my last day.

So I decided that the first few days of August would be a good time for a trip to Hong Kong for some R,R & G - Rest, Relaxation, and Gluttony :-) before making the final decision on choice of treatment. What can I say; I love food. If I had to make a "bucket list" ala Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman, half the list would probably involve food. :-)

I went with Kathy but set the ground rules early: no shopping, no lugging around shopping bags. The trip would be built around the eight meals.

True enough, our first five meals were planned and carried out with military precision:

Lunch, Aug. 1 - DIN TAI FUNG, The Concord Mall, Tsimshatsui. I first tasted Din Tai Fung dumplings on a trip to Singapore in early 2008, and had made it my life's mission to taste it again. We had two orders of the xiaolongpao and one order of their distinctive siomai. Good thing we did not attempt to go to the original Hong Kong branch located at the less accessible Whampoa Gardens. We learned at this newer outlet that the original store was a franchise that had, in the words of the manager we spoke to, "disappeared". This company-owned outlet in Tsimshatsui was apparently now the sole option for having Din Tai Fung dumplings in Hong Kong.

Dinner, Aug. 1 - MAIN STREET DELI, The Langham Hotel, Tsimshatsui. The Reuben sandwich was great, and unexpectedly turned out to be the most memorable experience of the trip.

Lunch, Aug. 2 - SERENADE RESTAURANT, Hong Kong Cultural Center, Kowloon. We had lunch with my cousin Jarvis and my nephew Paul. She originally offered to take us to the more expensive Victoria City, but I told her I would prefer some place with a more extensive dimsum menu, so we settled on Maxim's City Hall near Hong Kong Harbor, but since that was under renovation, we ended up at Serenade, also part of the Maxim's Group but located parallel on the opposite harbor. Great selection, great dimsum.

Dinner, Aug. 2 - CRYSTAL JADE, IFC Mall, Central District. Although there are a number of other Crystal Jade branches in Hong Kong, I picked this one because I thought I remembered it would be the shortest distance from the MTR trains. Boy was I wrong! :-)

Lunch, Aug. 3 - FU SING, Sunshine Plaza, Wan Chai. When we stepped out of the Lockhart Road Exit of the Wan Chai MTR station and found ourselves amid the hardware stores and tile shops, I am sure what went through Kathy's mind was "How could there possibly be a good restaurant here??" :-) But there it was, hidden away inside a building, Fu Sing. Not a wide dimsum selection, but arguably the best asado in Hong Kong, and distinctive radish cake.

After five meals though, I realized that I had not tasted anything great. Much as I did not want to, I had to accept that my appetite had been affected by my state of mind. Food simply did not seem to have the same flavor. I made up my mind that the new mission was to get well, return to Hong Kong, and do this all over again. :-)

One good development during the Hong Kong trip was that quite unexpectedly, I got to talk with Dr. Fung and was able to settle some remaining doubts in my mind. At that point I was leaning towards Dr. Mercado, but had some lingering concerns that his "back-of-the-head" surgical approach might be a bit more risky than the "through-the-ear" approach. I had heard that doing things through the back of the head involved moving aside the brain stem and the cerebellum (I can't remember where exactly I heard that information, but most likely it was from my sister Shirley, who had by this time made it her mission in life to know all there is to know about ANs), which struck me as particularly risky-sounding.

On Aug. 3 my cousin Jarvis called me at 10:30 in the morning and told me that if I wanted some time with Dr. Fung, he could accomodate me at 11:00 before his clinic hours officially started. My first thought was, of course, "that's 30 minutes from now!" but it's a good thing Hong Kong is such a compact city because we actually made it. And I'm glad we did. Dr. Fung was able to explain that a tumor my size was already in contact with both the cerebellum and the brain stem, so involvement of the cerebellum and the brain stem was unavoidable whichever approach was used. More importantly, he informed me that both the cerebellum and the brain stem were not overly sensitive structures and would be able to withstand a fair amount of "movement". If indeed these ended up damaged during surgery, it would be because the surgeon was incompetent and not because of the approach he used.

That's when I decided, as I described in a previous post, that I would let my choice of doctors dictate my choice of surgical approaches, instead of the other way around.

Then we left for Fu Sing... :-)