Brian’s Journey

The McLaughlin’s are an exceptional family with an overwhelming battle ahead of them. In late July, Brian had a stroke that set off a chain reaction of impacts in the already uncertain environment that we call 2020. The stroke occurred in the Broca's area of his brain. This makes expressive language very difficult. He is able to understand everything that is being spoken but has trouble in articulating a spoken response. He will be going to speech therapy for 8-12 weeks and doing exercises at home to hopefully gain back some of what has been lost. While in the ER, doctors found a hole in his heart which may be the cause of the stroke but there is still a number of unknowns and unanswered questions. The hole is called a PFO. They need to meet with a cardiologist to see if this hole will require surgery. In addition to this, Brian also has degenerative disc disease causing a great deal of discomfort and, as you can imagine, has complicated the above concerns. He had spinal surgery in February, but has multiple other problems that will need addressed. He has multiple bulging discs in his lumbar spine, with one disc completely blown out. His surgeon has recommended that he have 4-5 lumbar discs replaced. Unfortunately the U.S. is only approved to replace 2 discs, so they will need to travel to Germany for this surgery where this procedure has seen a great deal of success but will likely carry an expense of over $100,000. This is a huge source of continual pain for Brian, and he is often unable to function normally due to this. At this time Brian will be off work for a significant amount of time as he begins to recover from the stroke. Each obstacle will have its own path to recovery and impact for him and his beautiful wife and daughters. The road to recovery is also accompanied by tremendous expense. While things are changing nearly every day as they are able to receive more information from doctors and specialists they are doing their best to take it one day at a time. These funds will provide this family with the opportunity to make medical choices based on need and outcome rather than financial ability alone. They could also use all of the positive thoughts, prayers, and energy we all have to offer! Thank you in advance for joining me in wrapping around this family and showing them how much they are loved and supported. ❤️