George Messerlian GNMs Double Bogey

Welcome to George's CaringBridge website.   

As many of you already know, George was diagnosed with prostate cancer in July of 2019.  He has spent the last couple of months exploring the treatment options and finally decided to have surgery at St Johns Medical Center, in Santa Monica, which was scheduled for September 30, 2019.

 

In preparing for this surgery, on September 23, 2019, he had a regular work up with labs, EKG, chest X-ray and a visit with his internal medicine doctor.  His X-ray showed a small nodule in the right upper lobe of his lung.  He was immediately sent for a CT scan of the lung, and was told that it looked highly suspicious for a cancer.

 

After a difficult afternoon and evening, George, accompanied by Sally, went to see a pulmonologist (lung specialist) the next day, September 24, 2019.  The pulmonologist said he had a 68% chance of the lesion being malignant, but that he was very lucky, because it is very small, probably not spread, and “totally curable.”  Although we immediately felt much more hopeful, George was not completely convinced.

 

Meanwhile, his prostate surgery was cancelled.  His CT scan results were sent to another doctor (lung surgeon) at St Johns, and more blood work was done. We called our children to let them know what was going on.

 

On September 27, 2019, George had a PET scan – looking for spread of disease and whether the lesion was very active.  The preliminary results of that study look very positive.  No spread beyond the lesion we know about, and the lesion is less active than expected. George now believes that he can be cured. Hooray!

 

All this happened in less than a week, thanks to our super medical community in Santa Barbara. The plan now is to have a needle biopsy, already scheduled for Monday September 30, to identify more clearly what this lesion in his lung actually is. 

 

The prostate treatment is on hold for now, but that is not a concern.  We are reassured that it is not an emergency to treat that cancer.  Some even advocate doing nothing, and just watching, which is not George’s choice, but at the moment, it needs to be put on the back burner until the lung lesion is diagnosed and treated.

 

From now on George or Sally will update this site whenever there is something new to report, so we don’t have to make multiple phone calls each time there is news or progress.

 

Thank you all for your love and support and care during this difficult time for us.  Please hold our amazing family, and especially our wonderful George, in your prayers. We appreciate you all more than we can express.  Do not hesitate to call to talk to us, as this website is not to stop you from reaching out to us, but only to help us communicate to you all easily and quickly.