Keyshawn's Final Wish: A Bucket List Journey

April 1st my little brother Keyshawn turned 24. We was so excited and ready to celebrate but he was severely struggling with his health due to a situation of neglect. He has a disease he was born with called “Congenital Tubal Cirrhosis Lymphedema” it’s an incurable irreversible disease where his body retains fluid and liquid. He was born with it and grew up with this condition his whole life it wasn’t until he received lack of care from his caregiver for the last 2 years that the condition took over his life before that Keyshawn was a very happy active person. He got to the point he was non mobile, in a lot of pain and his legs has retained so much fluid they was about 145lbs a piece.

*April 3rd I rushed Keyshawn to the Henderson Co Deaconess Hospital where he was immediately admitted (and very pamper by the med Surg techs and nurses) upon his stay we had discovered he had a open infected bed sore and lots of fluid on his heart and lungs. Keyshawn was there for a month then they doctors discovered his bed sore was actually infected all the way down to the bone and there was no more they could do to heal the wound with his health condition they quickly decided on *April 30th to send him to UOfL Jewish hospital.

May 1st He was rushed up to Louisville. They immediately ran many test and made a game plan in about 2 hours, they decided they wanted to amputate both legs due to the infection and the amount of fluid built up along with doing 2 lung surgeries to remove as much fluid as possible without putting him distress then get his some prosthetics.

*May 2nd Keyshawn had both legs amputated with the game plan of healing and going to Frasier’s rehabilitation and learning physical therapy and get prosthetic legs. Day by day the infection just kept coming back and growing no matter what antibiotics he was on and set us back on recovery. From May 3rd to June 9th Keyshawn and been through 8 surgeries for fluid removal and one for amputation. One of the lung surgeries had almost took his life and left him on a ventilator for a few day. As he slowly started to heal he just kept experiencing pain and discomfort.

*June 9th he underwent what we thought was his “last surgery before full recovery “ but the doctors finally got enough fluid off his lungs to actually see that the infection was so strong it had eaten a whole in his lungs. At this point his body and the infection and gain a immunity to every antibiotic. They the. sadly broke the news to Keyshawn and I that he has only had a life expectancy of 6 months to a year with hospice care and very strong medication. That day they decided Keyshawn had been in the hospital for 3 months too long and they didn’t want him wasting any more of his precious time wilting away in the bed.

*June 11 Keyshawn was transported home (with me) on oxygen and plenty of medication to keep him comfortable and is now living his last days enjoying much family time, his favorite food and soon a few vacation. We have our days when we break down and just cry and he always tells me “sissy I just don’t want to die not yet i haven’t even lived life” and most day we sit around laughing and cutting up.

With that being said we are accepting all the love, support and prayers out there! Now our goals are just complete his very short bucket list in this little time (1. Go to universal studios, 2. See the beach one more time, 3 try all the anime food he can find, 4. Attend Comacon 5. See his niece and nephews grow up with many laughs with him).