About 1 hour

In the air, Monterey to LAX

Same day

Biopsy, slides read, consultation

Results in 24 hours

Before most patients fly home

One visit

No second trip down the coast

Getting here

Fly it, or make a day of the drive.

Carmel is roughly 330 miles up the coast, which puts it outside comfortable day trip driving for most people. The short flight from Monterey turns it into a single day, and the appointment is built so you leave with the answer already in motion.

By air, the usual choice

  • Monterey Regional to LAX. Direct flights run the route and the hop itself is about an hour.
  • Book a mid morning appointment. An early flight down leaves plenty of margin before the visit.
  • About an hour in the office. Ultrasound, biopsy, staining and the consultation.
  • Home the same evening. Preliminary findings usually reach you within 24 hours, often before you have unpacked.

By road, if you prefer

  • US-101 or Highway 1. Roughly five and a half to six hours each way depending on the route and the coast.
  • Worth an overnight. Most driving patients come down the day before rather than doing it in one push.
  • Same single appointment. The visit does not get longer because you drove.
  • One trip either way. There is no follow up visit to hear the result.

Either way it is one trip. The reason patients travel for this is that the person taking the sample is the person reading it, so the answer does not wait on a laboratory somewhere else.

What are we sampling

What patients fly down for.

A fine needle aspiration uses a needle thinner than the one used to draw blood. No incision, no stitches, local anesthesia only, and nothing that stops you flying home the same day.

Thyroid

Thyroid nodule biopsy

Only 4 to 6 percent of thyroid nodules turn out to be cancer. Ultrasound guided sampling, graded on the Bethesda system, read on site. Thyroid biopsy

Breast

Breast lump biopsy

Most breast lumps are benign. If it is a cyst, draining it with the same needle often makes the lump disappear during the visit. Breast biopsy

Lymph nodes

Lymph node biopsy

Usually a node is simply doing its job. When it is hard, fixed, or has not gone away, cells answer the question in one appointment. Lymph node biopsy

Celina-M-Nadelman-MD
Why it is worth the trip

The person holding the needle is the person reading the cells.

In almost every other setting those are two different people, and the handoff between them is where the two weeks go. That handoff is the reason patients travel from the Monterey Peninsula for a test that takes twenty minutes. Dr. Nadelman is one of very few physicians in the United States who is board certified in cytopathology and practices as a fine needle aspiration specialist. She performs the biopsy and she interprets it.

  • Head of the FNA Clinic for Los Angeles County at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center
  • Clinical instructor, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
  • Co-Director of Pathology, Charles R. Drew University
  • Residency and fellowship at UCLA. M.D., Keck School of Medicine of USC
The day itself

About an hour in the office.

Built so a patient who flew in that morning can be back at the airport in the afternoon with the diagnostic work already done.

01

Consultation and ultrasound

Dr. Nadelman examines the lump and looks at it on ultrasound first, so she knows exactly what she is sampling. Bring any imaging you already have.

02

The aspiration

Local anesthesia, then a few passes with a fine needle. Most people find it easier than a blood draw, and there is nothing to stitch.

03

Read on site

The slides are stained and examined in the office lab while you wait. If the sample is thin she takes another one there and then.

04

Fly home

Preliminary findings usually within 24 hours, sent to you and to whichever physician you name on the Monterey Peninsula.

Carmel questions

Asked before booking the flight.

How do most Carmel patients get to the office?

Most fly. Monterey Regional Airport has direct service to LAX and the flight is about an hour, which makes the whole thing a single day. Driving is roughly five and a half to six hours each way on US-101 or Highway 1, so patients who drive usually come down the day before.

Yes, and that is the reason to make the trip. Dr. Nadelman is the cytopathologist as well as the physician performing the aspiration, so the slides are stained and read in the office while you are still there. Preliminary findings are usually available within 24 hours.

There is no incision and no general anesthesia, so most patients go straight back to normal activity, flying included. Dr. Nadelman will tell you on the day if anything about your case suggests otherwise.

Any ultrasound, mammogram or CT report you already have, and the name of the physician you want the report sent to. No referral is needed to book the appointment.

Fly down in the morning, fly home with an answer.

Next-day appointments are usually available, and house calls are available anywhere in California.

310.702.6701

1125 S. Beverly Drive, Suite 602
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Monday to Friday, 10 to 6

CELINA NADELMAN, M.D.

  • Biopsy and interpretation by a Board Certified Cytopathologist

  • Ultrasound-guided and palpation-guided FNAs

  • Preliminary diagnosis within 24 hours in most cases

  • Next day appointments available

  • We accept most major PPO insurances and Medicare.

  • Patient and physician time savings

  • Relief of patient anxiety

  • Medical, technical and fiscal resource conservation

  • Appropriate and expeditious triage of the patient and their sample

  • Diagnostic ultrasound services

WE ARE HERE TO HELP

Request an appointment with The Cancer Biopsy Doctor, Celina M. Nadelman, M.D. today.

Did you know we do house calls in the state of California? We can travel to you anywhere in California! Speak to our office about the details.