Help Brandon fight the fight

Hi, my name is Mandy and I am fundraising for my brother-in-law Brandon. Brandon is currently in the ICU at a hospital in Fort Myers Florida, he has been hospitalized for 16 days. He and his family were supposed to fly back to their home in Omaha, NE on May 28; life had different plans. About two months ago Brandon started feeling unwell, it all started with what he thought was a stomach bug. Next came open sores on his body, the Urgent Care doctor diagnosed him with Shingles; he was started on antivirals and sent on his way. The sores began to heal however, in the meantime the left side of his neck began to swell. Brandon and his wife Tina assumed these were enlarged lymph nodes from the infection and hoped the medication would help this as well. They watched and waited hoping the swelling would go down, after four long weeks, it just got bigger and bigger. Brandon began battling dizziness and severe headaches, he felt like he had the flu, but continued to fight through while becoming very weak. On April 28th, Brandon went to see an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Specialist, they took a biopsy of the golf size swollen area (mass) in his neck. The results of that biopsy came back negative, however, the ENT specialist wanted to do a CT scan to determine exactly where the mass was located within his neck to remove it safely. This CT scan found a second mass behind Brandon’s tongue. On Friday, May 19th, Brandon had surgery to have the large mass removed from his neck; the second mass was then biopsied. The ENT doctor described the large mass he removed as the size of a Snickers bar, it had flattened Brandon’s left carotid artery. It was no wonder he was having so much dizziness and headaches. The next morning Brandon was discharged home. That evening, Brandon woke Tina up in the middle of the night, he appeared to be having seizure-like activity. “My body reacts like this after surgery,” he said and asked Tina not to call 911. Next came increased stomach acid and hiccups for 48 hours straight. Sunday, May 21st he began having numbness and tingling in his fingers and toes; his dizziness came back, and he was feeling very weak. Monday came debilitating back pain causing him to fall to his knees. By Wednesday, Brandon had lost his ability to stand up tall and was walking hunched over. At this point it was time to get to the hospital, something was terribly wrong! On May 24th, Brandon was admitted to the hospital. Thursday he could no longer stand. Friday he could no longer support himself sitting up. Saturday he could no longer lift his arms. Sunday he could barely talk, becoming very short of breath. Monday he began choking on fluids while swallowing and was moved to the ICU. Things continued to decline and fast. Brandon was unable to cough up the secretions that were building up in his lungs despite being suctioned, he couldn’t talk, and panic was setting in. Thursday morning, he whispered “HELP ME” to Tina and was emergently intubated. Today is day 8 of being ventilated. The doctors have diagnosed him with Guillain–Barré syndrome, which is a rapid-onset muscle weakness caused by the immune system damaging the peripheral nervous system. One treatment for this is IVIG therapy (this helps boost antibody levels to fight infection and diseases), the hospital staff began this treatment on day 5 of symptoms. Unfortunately, the medical team did not see any results from this so they started the second treatment, plasmapheresis (unhealthy plasma is removed from the body and exchanged for healthy plasma), today will be his 5th and final treatment. Brandon’s mobility is very limited, he can squeeze his fingers a little and at times wiggle his toes. Mentally he is completely aware of what’s going on. If all of this wasn’t enough, the biopsy of the second mass came back with squamous cell carcinoma to the base of this tongue and tonsil with one of four lymph nodes affected. Once Brandon is extubated and out of the ICU he has a long road to recovery, this will include extensive therapy at an inpatient rehab facility and once he is strong enough, beginning his chemo and radiation to treat his cancer. If you know Brandon, he is a hardworking man. He has always worked hard to take care of himself and his family. Asking for help does not come easy to him. His passion for doing floors is something he looks forward to and thrives at. Brandon WILL recover and WILL be able to walk again someday but not without a challenge. Unfortunately, the care Brandon has been getting in Fort Myers is subpar and he deserves so much more! This GoFundMe is to help pay for medical expenses as well as medical transport expenses to get him to a hospital where they know how to treat this syndrome so that we can work on getting Brandon back to Brandon. We are not sure where this will take us, but we are currently considering different options. With tragedy comes happiness as well, Brandon became a grandpa on June 4th. He can’t wait to see his grandson and hold him. Please keep Brandon in your thoughts and prayers.