Help Pay Brandon's Medical Bills

My husband and I met in the summer of 2012 through an online dating site that neither of us were on to get dates. I had recently graduated from college and was looking for new friends while he had created a profile for the quizzes back in high school. We ended up sending page-long messages back and forth and tallking for hours on the phone even before we met up in person. We were perfect for each other and for four months, everything was great.

Then, just shy of our five month anniversary, Brandon went in for a routine eye exam. On the scans, the doctor noticed his retina looked squished and said he was going to refer us to a retina specialist. Instead, we got a call the next morning that sent us to OHSU and Brandon got an MRI. We discovered he had a 5cm by 4cm by 5.5cm brain tumor (a mass about the size of a golf ball) putting near fatal pressure on his carotid artery and brain stem, as well as placing a great deal of pressure on his left eye. On the way home that day, he told me I could leave if I wanted to, with no hard feelings and no guilt. I told him no way. Within a week of the appointment, on December 19th, Brandon was in surgery to remove the tumor.

Thankfully he made it through the surgery, however there was an unforeseen consequence of the the tumor removal. The tumor had grown on his left trigeminal nerve (the nerve that controls all feeling in the face and also has quite a bit of say in how the face functions due to all the nerves that connect to it) and the nerve had to be removed entirely. I was just happy to have him alive. He proposed to me two days later, in his hospital room.

We were only home a few days when, on Christmas Day, Brandon had two grand mal seizures and had to go back to the hospital. He had some memory issues shortly after the seizures but luckily he still had the capacity for short and long term memory retention. However, the seizures meant a permanent addition of anti-seizure meds to his life, in addition to the medications for blood pressure and neuropathy from the nerve loss.

We thought the issues from there would be minimal, but in June of 2013, we discovered the tumor had bored a 5mm wide hole through the skull and its lining and was dripping cerebrospinal fluid (the stuff that keeps the brain where it's supposed to be and in working order) into his ear canal. This caused a loss of balance to the point that even walking was difficult and intense ear pain. It took three months to get a surgery scheduled, but in September we got the hole leak fixed. However, all that time out of work meant a dent in what we had to live on, especially since I ended up not working so I could take care of him.

We're happily married and thankfully no more life-threatening issues have arisen so far. Our family and friends have been a great support, but we're still pretty heavily in debt to the hospital for the surgeries and will have more hospital bills in the future thanks to yearly MRIs to make sure the tumor doesn't return, regular doctor's visits every couple months, dental work and maintenance that needs to be done to get Brandon's teeth healthy again thanks to an overgrowth of calculus caused by the loss of the nerve, and a much needed tonsil removal.

Anything helps and we would definitely appreciate it! Our heatfelt thanks goes to anyone willing to help us out. Anyone who donates $30 or more will recieve a Puff drawing of their choice. It can be of someone you know or a favorite character (it will need to be human thanks to my limited drawing abilities). Examples are here