Dylan and His Journey With Brain Cancer

Hello, my name is Grace, Dylan's cousin and I want to share Dylan's journey with you!

Dylan faced many trials throughout his 20 years.

Dylan was born December 18th 2002.

The summer of 2007, Dylan was diagnosed as Autistic but high functioning.

Dylan's fight began on December 4th 2022 when they found a tumor in his brain. His next few days included a burr hole to relieve pressure on his brain, MRI's and a biopsy that confirmed the tumor was cancerous.

On December 12, Dylan had a seizure due to Cerebral Salt Wasting. December 14th, he began his chemotherapy.

Dylan started experiencing new pressure on his brain on Jan 4th and was in and out of consciousness.

Jan 10th, Dylan went into surgery to receive a shunt.

As of March 16th, Dylan's tumor had shrunk 20%. We were so hopeful this was a good sign that he would overcome this.

Between March to May Dylan received more chemo and was preparing for radiation.

On May 31st Dylan started having pain in his head and could not walk on his own. He was taken to Banner University where a CT scan was done. The tumor was confirmed to have grown and he was transferred to Mayo Neurosugery.

June 2nd he had surgery with Dr. Bendock to see and video the tumor vessels.

June 13th Dylan underwent a 15 hour brain surgery to remove the tumor. 95% was removed. The evening of the surgery, Dylan woke up and was responding to commands!

Between June 15th and July 17th, Dylan continued to fight. He experienced multiple blood clots, a filter being put in for the clots, lots of swelling, multiple medications, a feeding tube, infections, eyesight and hearing loss, physical therapy, and some struggles with walking and talking.

July 18th Dylan was discharged from Mayo and transferred to a Rehab Center.

July 27th Dylan started experiencing hallucinations and confusion. He was taken back to Mayo. Another CT was taken.

July 28th Dylan's team advised that his brain had cancerous specks around where the tumor was attached. The course of action was an aggressive chemo to kill the specks and prepare him for radiation.

July 31st- Dylan suffered a stoke. A large blood clot and brain bleed was found. Dylan was placed on Life Support. Surgery to remove the clot was not recommended due to the location.

Evening of July 31st- Doctors advised the family that Dylan would not be able to successfully come off of life support and that it would be a matter of time before his fight ended.

On August 2nd, with his family all around him, Dylan's battle with cancer was lost.

Dylan never complained of his pain, or any of the procedures he had to endure. He just continued through his journey with the same strength and resilience he had shown while growing up. What a brilliant mind Dylan had. Dylan loved Blacksmithing. He could tell you about his passions forever. He was always ready to strike up a conversation about the 2nd Ammendment or History related.

He truly was such an amazing young man. He had just graduated High School in 2022 and he was excited to start working with a Blacksmithing mentor.

I am making this GoFundMe so that we can have a service to honor him. Anything extra would go to the family for time to grieve and/or medical expenses.

If you make a donation, we thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. And if you are unable to make a donation, we understand and we just request that you please keep this family in your prayers.

If you made it to the end, I thank you so much for reading Dylan's story. What an incredible human being he was ❤️