Hi, if you don't know me, name is Brenna Totty, today, rather than ask for help for others, as I have in the past. I must humble myself and ask for assistance because my second born son Paxton Hodges has severe epilepsy and is getting the second of two brain surgeries. He lives in California, and I am in Oklahoma. I have Multiple Sclerosis and am on disability. At this moment I am paying full rent, electric, phone and internet with less than $1000 a month. I cannot get by each month because of this. So I must beg you, my friends, my family and those of you I may not know, I desperately need your help to get me there. His surgery is August 22nd and I hope to be there by the 18th. The date is coming up so quickly!!! I just got the surgery date a few days ago or I would have started sooner. My son is 23-years-old, he has never been able to enjoy things like riding a bike (but he did any way, little sneak), he couldn't get a license, play sports or even join the Service in the Army. His first brain surgery, just a couple months ago, consisted of a week stay in the hospital with electrodes that they put in-between his skull and his brain. Those electrodes were connected to hundreds upon hundreds of wires that measured his brain activity through both the hundreds of smaller seizures a day, as well as his grand-mal seizures. The information from that surgery was analyzed and that info was put on to, yet another microchip programed to be able to block the signals that are causing the seizures. The second brain surgery is MUCH more invasive, and they will be putting that chip directly into his brain. My son has decided to be the most brave person I have ever met! To put your brain into the hands of even the best surgeons, must be terrifying. Yet he is showing the most incredible strength of heart, of mind, and his faith in God. He will be surround by family and loved one's and I could never, will never, forgive myself if I am not there. The first surgery, yes, I was worried. This surgery has much more at stake, like, God forbid his mind or even his life. However, it can afford him the opportunity to be able to hold his hypothetical future child without being supervised. He can get a job. He can get a license. He can live a life of normalcy. And for the first time since he was a young child he will have complete freedom to go where he wants, when he wants, how he wants... To him it must seem a miracle! I cannot even begin to thank his wife and his in-laws, because they help give him strength, give such loving tenderness and really treat him as if he has always been theirs. I wouldn't wish it to be any other way. My expenses are going to include a flight there, food and necessities for the trip, and to be able to pay my dog sitter at least a little something. While I am there, I would like to contribute to food for the family and the gas they will spend driving from Burbank to Lancaster. I know I may not raise enough to do all these things. But as long as I can get the plane ticket and food for the trip there and back, God will provide everything else. I hate begging for money in the first place. I wouldn't be doing this if I did not need the help. I have faith in God and the fact that he will make this happen. Through God everything is possible. Through you, the help to get there to be with my son is possible. I thank you in advance, so incredibly much. And I love you all!