Hi everyone. For those that don't know, my name is Kelly and my boyfriend of 5 years’ name is Jimmy. Since around the start on 2021 Jimmy started experiencing minor headaches and over a few months they got a bit worse but still nothing that he felt warranted a doctor visit. Jump forward about 4-5 months, he began experiencing blurred vision that would come and go in waves. Things got progressively worse over about 2 months to the point where he had severe tunnel vision in one eye (5-10% of his normal visual field) and spotty vision that was worsening in the other. When I finally got him to call the doctor's office, he saw an ophthalmologist and they discovered his optic nerves were extremely swollen. After that they ordered an MRI for him the next day where they then discovered a mass at the base of his brain. This mass was causing cerebrospinal fluid to build up in his brain and creating extreme pressure.

From there we were told to pack up our things and go to the ER at UW-Health in Madison that same day. After spending hours in the ER being seen by numerous doctors he was admitted to the Neuro-ICU on 7/29. That evening they did his first surgery to place an external shunt in his brain to drain the excess fluid into a catheter and relieve the pressure.

On 8/1 he had his 2nd surgery to do a biopsy of the mass and create a new path to allow the fluid to drain without the shunt. Unfortunately due to the extent and location of the mass they were not able to create the alternate path for the fluid to drain and they had to place a VP shunt which is an internal drain that allows the fluid to drain into his abdomen where it can be absorbed.

A few days later we received the biopsy results and he was diagnosed with a pineoblastoma (a very rare and aggressive type of brain tumor). After the Neurosurgeon, oncologist and radiation team spoke, they decided the best plan of attack would be to debulk the tumor first. That surgery took place on 8/8. Due to the nature of the tumor they were not able to remove all of it but took as much out as they could safely.

He has been in the ICU for about 2.5 weeks and from here he will be going to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. There they will use a special proton radiation therapy that is best for brain tumors. This will be for about 6 weeks of daily treatments.

With all that has happened in just the past 2-3 weeks we really aren't sure what we are in for. Jimmy does have health insurance but we all know how terrible the American healthcare system is so we aren't really sure what we are in for financially. Even if all treatments are covered by his health insurance he will still be out of work for at least 2 months, has a $3000 deductible/maximum out of pocket for insurance and we will have a lot of travel expenses for radiation and any other future treatments. I hate asking for help but here I am. Any contribution would be extremely helpful whether it be $5, sharing this with your friends and family, or just sending some positive thoughts and prayers his way.