The route from Long Beach

One run down the freeway.

Long Beach is about 28 miles from the office, normally 35 minutes to an hour on the I-405 north. Far enough that you want to make the trip once, close enough that there is no reason to make it twice. The fine needle aspiration itself is a twenty minute procedure, and the slides are read on site.

What to plan around

  • Take a mid morning slot. It keeps you off the freeway during both rush hours.
  • Bring your imaging. Any ultrasound, mammogram or CT report from a Long Beach clinic helps target the sample.
  • Allow about an hour inside. Ultrasound, biopsy, the slides read on site, then the consultation.
  • Garage parking in the building. No circling Beverly Drive looking for a space.

Why it is one trip

  • The sample and the reading in one room. Dr. Nadelman performs the biopsy and interprets it herself.
  • A thin sample is repeated on the day. Not reported back to you a fortnight later.
  • Results within 24 hours. Usually before you would have got a hospital appointment at all.
  • No follow up visit. There is nothing to drive back for.

The drive replaces the wait, not adds to it. For most Long Beach patients the round trip takes less time than the gap between a referral and the first available hospital radiology slot.

Fine needle aspiration in Long Beach

The three biopsies Long Beach patients come here for.

A fine needle aspiration uses a needle thinner than the one used to draw blood. No incision, no stitches, local anesthesia only.

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

Two routes from Long Beach

The difference is who reads your slides.

If your Long Beach physician finds a thyroid nodule, a breast lump or a swollen lymph node, the referral almost always goes to a hospital radiology department. A radiologist takes the sample, and a pathologist you never meet reads it days later.

The hospital referral

Two visits, two specialists, two waits

  • Day 0. Referral and imaging
  • Day 3. A radiologist takes the sample
  • Day 12 to 14. Pathology report reaches your doctor
  • If the sample is short. You find out two weeks later and start over

About two weeks of waiting

With Dr. Nadelman

One appointment

One visit, one specialist, one trip

  • Day 0. Ultrasound, biopsy, slides read on site, consultation
  • Same day. If the sample is short she knows immediately and takes another
  • Within 24 hours. Preliminary results to you and your doctor
  • No second trip. You talk to the person who made the diagnosis

An answer inside of two days

Your appointment

What actually happens.

Plan on about an hour from walking in to walking out, however far you drove to get here.

01

Consultation and ultrasound

Dr. Nadelman examines the lump and looks at it on ultrasound first, so she knows exactly what she is sampling.

02

The aspiration

Local anesthesia, then a few passes with a fine needle. Most people find it easier than a blood draw.

03

Read on site

The slides are stained and examined in the office lab while you wait. This is the step that does not exist anywhere else.

04

Drive home

Preliminary findings usually within 24 hours, sent to you and to whichever physician you name in Long Beach.

Long Beach questions

Asked before the trip.

How far is the office from Long Beach?

It is about 28 miles from Long Beach, normally 35 minutes to an hour on the I-405 north. The office is at 1125 S. Beverly Drive, Suite 602, in Los Angeles, with parking in the building garage.

Less than most people expect. The needle is thinner than the one used for a blood draw, the area is numbed first, and there is no incision, so there is nothing to stitch and nothing to heal.

She takes another one in the same visit. The slides are examined in the office while you are still there, so a short sample is caught in minutes rather than discovered by an outside lab two weeks later.

Next-day appointments are usually available and same day is often possible. That is the practical difference from a hospital radiology referral, where the first opening is frequently weeks out.

Worth reading before you drive up. fine needle aspiration in Los Angeles, the insurance the office accepts, and the questions patients ask most. She also samples salivary gland, soft tissue and other lumps, bumps and nodules.

Near Long Beach. She also sees patients from Torrance, Irvine and Laguna Beach. Or see every area she covers.

Waiting is the worst part. It does not have to take two weeks.

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

What patients say

4.9 stars across Google and Yelp

Reviews from people who came in with a lump and left with an answer.
See video testimonials and letters from referring physicians are on the testimonials page.

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.