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Signs and Symptoms

Program: Skull Base Surgery
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Andrew Schorr:

Well, yes, sir. We're going to recap your story. So for more than two decades you've been a corporate pilot. And I have my private pilot's license, and I admire you, flying all those Learjets and all that and all around. Very cool job, and I'm sure the love of flying. So there you were flying around Thanksgiving time in 2004, and you were having trouble on those descents clearing your sinuses. I've had it on some airline flights, but I'd imagine you'd be really practiced at that. And then you also start getting an unexplained nosebleed that had to be concerning for you.

Gerald:

Yes, it was. I knew that something was abnormal. I needed to get it checked out.

Andrew Schorr:

And so you did. The very natural thing was you go to an ear, nose and throat specialist, and you had what often could happen and they do a CT scan, and then you go about your business and they say, well, we'll let you know what's going on. You got a call from that doctor, and the doctor wanted to see you I know in her office but you got her to tell you over the phone. There was a mass inside your skull. That must have been terrifying.

Gerald:

Yes, that's not the kind of news you want to hear.

Andrew Schorr:

That's an understatement. You're on a trip, you're out of town, you fly back home, and then you have an MRI and they confirm that there's something in there that shouldn't be, although I guess the initial thought was it was not a malignancy?

Gerald:

That's correct. The first professional opinion I received was that it was probably just a benign growth in my sinus cavity that they would try to remove endoscopically, and so we proceeded with that, but that turned out not to be the case at all.

Andrew Schorr:

Right. It turned out to be something much more serious. And so you asked for a second opinion. That brings you to M. D. Anderson. What happened just before Christmas 2004 at M. D. Anderson?

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