Support for Albert's Cancer Battle

First and foremost: thank you all for visiting this page and considering giving to a special, light-up-a-room kinda guy and very close friend of ours. If you’re here I’m sure you know of Albert Elmazovski in one way or another, and if it’s firsthand or via a close friend, you’ll know his reputation precedes him as the hilarious, positive, passionate, and hardworking person he is, with a true heart of gold. Professionally, Albert is an extremely talented Director of Photography, Camera Operator and AC—and actively the funniest guy on set. Recently, Albert received life-changing news that he has been keeping very private, until now. It’s become an unavoidable reality in the effects it’s having on his everyday life, as well as on the foreseeable future. His diagnosis and treatment will leave him out of work for the remainder of the year in surgery, treatment, and subsequent physical therapy.

 

More specifically, Albert has been diagnosed with a rare cancer called MPNST. At the end of 2019, he began to experience pain in his right leg. He ignored it for a while—chalking it up to working too much, sleeping weird, or just typical in-my-thirties pain—but it grew increasingly worse, rendering it hard to even stand for a few minutes. When the pandemic hit, work slowed, staying healthy immune-wise took precedent and 2019 became 2021.

 

In January 2021, the pain became debilitating, and after seeing multiple neurosurgeons it was discovered that the pain Albert was experiencing was a tumor in his right pelvis. After a few months and multiple MRIs, that same tumor grew to the size of a grapefruit, making it hard to walk and emergency surgery a necessity. The tumor was attached to his femoral nerve, making it difficult to remove without causing him to lose the use of his leg. Because of this, the surgeon made the decision to remove only 80% of this tumor. At this point, he received the news that this tumor was not only making it difficult to walk, it was also cancerous. Albert started immunotherapy shortly after with the hope that it would shrink the remaining 20% of that tumor, an effort that sadly did not turn out to match their optimism. Just this past December, an MRI showed that the tumor had grown even larger than its original size, causing a tremendous amount of pain and making it almost impossible for Albert to work or get around normally.

 

The good news was that the cancer did not spread outside of that original tumor, but he was told he needs to take an aggressive step toward the pelvic tumor and this time remove it in its entirety, including the femoral nerve. Though this difficult decision gives him a better prognosis for the cancer, it will render Albert unable to return to normal function in that leg, leaving him without the ability to bend his knee and likely bound to wear a brace for the remainder of his life. This emergency surgery is scheduled for this week, March 1, 2022. After it is complete, he will have about three months of recovery following this surgery, physical therapy to learn to walk again, and the start of aggressive chemotherapy treatments lasting four months in hopes to kill any remaining cancerous cells.

 

This brings us to today: Albert has already been admitted to the hospital in extreme pain and the inability to walk, while he is waiting on the surgery to begin. As you can imagine, this whole experience has caused immense physical, emotional, and financial strains on Albert and his family. Albert is the sole provider for his mother and will be out of work for the remainder of 2022.

 

We are so appreciative of any and all support both financially and of value in good vibes that you can spare for this truly wonderful person. Our hope is that this will help raise awareness about this very serious situation, some funds to help him get through this next chapter without work, and give Albert some extra hope and support. He deserves it all, tenfold. It is most important to us that he doesn’t fight or feel alone in this journey, and knows he has a group of friends and supporters near and far.

 

We will be sure to update as Albert’s situation changes and progresses. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for reading and for your consideration!

 

—TEAM ALBERT