The Dream's Team

Brandon is a 23 year old young man living in south Alabama.When he was around 13 he was taken to the doctor for having migraines. Our local doctor spotted something on his brain and sent us straight to Children's hospital in Birmingham for more tests. There the doctors concluded that the spots that were seen were only "lesions." Lesions are a build up of scar tissue, sounds kind of harmless right? Well, that is the way the doctors made us feel about it all anyway. They said the migraines were just migraines and not related to the lesions. Fast forward 5 years, he is 18. He went to Children's for a final scan. That scan showed no change in the lesions and we were told that he was fine and only needed to follow up if there were any new symptoms up to the age of 21. They said he could have scans done again at later dates, if he needed them for new symptoms. Made things sound good. Fast forward another 5 years, he is 23. He comes home from work and asks his mom and stepdad to take him to the emergency room because he did not feel good. He was short of breath, his right ear was hurting and ringing and his mouth was also numb on the right side. They did a CT and instead of seeing the lesions from before they found a large brain tumor. The ER doctor made him an appointment with a neurosurgeon to follow up, but because of the things we were told when he was 18, we were not as worried as we should have been. The doctor informed our mother that anytime there is something in the brain it is to be termed 'brain cancer.' The tumor is in the cerebellum and up into the pons. We were told that whatever it is, is aggressive. We sit here now waiting for an appointment and searching for help. We have applied for financial assistance through UAB but have not heard anything yet and the appointment won't be scheduled without approval. He has no health insurance. He works part time and at this moment does not qualify for disability. This is our way of raising money to help cover the expenses we know he is about to face.