Let’s help our Marine!

Hi everyone! Ashley here (the sister in law). I wanted to start this fundraiser to help Brian and Jennifer through these tough times. Brian is a very decorated marine and a USMC retiree. Brian has fought for our country to give us the freedom to do what we do, the freedom for me to sit here and write this, the freedom for all of us to just live on as we do. Its time we give back to him and help him during this tough time he is going through with his battle with cancer. He will have a very major surgery on the 19th that will put both Brian and Jen out of work for some time. Any help is appreciated. Thank you all as I know this will be a successful fundraiser and will help tremendously!  Below is an update on his cancer journey!

11/5/2021 Just to update everyone on my progress I've been diagnosed with stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma in the right side of my face. The tumor is on top of my trigeminal nerve that started in the parotid gland. The right side of my face is also paralyzed and I have Bell's palsy. Its not the skin caner type either. Normally it starts in the stomach or brain area. Luckily right now they only see it around the right side of my face but they believe it started somewhere else but have not found it. The type of stage it's at isn't currently life threatening yet but it's stage 4 something because of the location and other criteria.

I still need a lot of prayers and words of encouragement. The pain has been excruciating and its getting worse. Its so bad that I just got put on fentanyl, dilaudid, and other stuff.  I wake up several times throughout the night and I live my days by the 4 hour increments of pain meds that help some. The cancer/tumor has wrapped itself around my jaw, muscles, and nerves. Its also has gone into my skull but it hasnt touched my brain yet.  

I have a very dangerous and aggressive surgery scheduled on Nov 19th to try to remove the cancer and tumor. There going to have to do facial reconstructive surgery. There going to remove part of the right side of my jaw, parotid gland, facial nerve, and lynph nodes. They'll take part of my nerves, muscles, and flap from somewhere else in my body and attach it to my face. All the nerves on the right side of my face are pretty much dead. 

During the surgery I'll have 5 different Dr teams operating on me and that will last all day. They might even have to remove part of my skull to get to the cancer there. I should be in the hospital about 1 week. While I'm in the hospital they'll have a tracheostomy in my throat in case I cant breath.  They are worried about that. I've been told that I will either be 100% cancer free after this or I'll still have 100% cancer and there nothing they can do. 

After the surgery I have to do chemotherapy and radiation treatment.  If that treatment doesn't work then I cant do another bout of chemo and or radiation treatment. At this point it would be terminal and life threatening. 

My family and I would love your prayers and word of encouragement.  My wife and son are taking this really hard. I dont think my daughter fully understands what is going on and she doesn't really show emotions at all. Financially this is really hard and taking a toll on us because my wife and I are missing so much work because of my appointments and how much pain that Im in.