Under an hour

In the air to LAX

Same day

Biopsy, slides read, consultation

Results in 24 hours

Before most patients fly home

One visit

No second trip

Getting here

Fly it, or make a day of the drive.

San Luis Obispo is outside comfortable day trip driving for most people. The flight to LAX is under an hour, which turns the whole thing into a single day, and the appointment is built so you leave with the answer already in motion.

By air, the usual choice

  • San Luis Obispo County Regional (SBP). Service into LAX, and the flight itself is under an hour.
  • Book a mid morning appointment. An early flight down leaves plenty of margin.
  • About an hour in the office. Ultrasound, biopsy, staining and the consultation.
  • Home the same evening. Preliminary findings usually reach you within 24 hours.

By road, if you prefer

  • Roughly about 190 miles. Three and a half hours each way on US-101 south.
  • Worth an overnight. Most driving patients come the day before rather than doing it in one push.
  • The 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 San Luis Obispo patients are usually sent for.

The needle is thinner than the one used for a blood draw. There is nothing to stitch afterwards and nothing to heal, and most patients go straight back to their 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 San Luis Obispo 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. Bring any imaging you already have.

02

The aspiration

Local anesthesia, then a few passes with a fine needle. 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 there and then.

04

Fly home

Preliminary findings usually within 24 hours, sent to you and to whichever physician you name in San Luis Obispo.

San Luis Obispo questions

What patients ask first.

How do most San Luis Obispo patients get to the office?

Most fly. San Luis Obispo County Regional (SBP) connects to LAX and the flight is under an hour, which makes the appointment a single day. Driving is about 190 miles on US-101 south, roughly three and a half hours each way, so patients who drive usually come the day before.

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

No. You can schedule directly with the office. If you do have a referring physician, Dr. Nadelman sends them the report and is glad to talk through the findings with them, and because she reads the slides herself that conversation happens with the person who made the diagnosis.

No. The slides are stained and read under the microscope while you are still in the office, because Dr. Nadelman is the cytopathologist as well as the physician doing the biopsy. Preliminary findings are usually available within 24 hours and go to you and to whichever physician you name.

One appointment, one specialist, one 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.