Rob Geschwill's recovery from Blastomycosis

Hello! My name is Sheena and I am raising funds for, Rob Greschwell, a dear family friend of mine who was diagnosed with Blastomycosis after a long list of misdiagnoses. Blastomycosis is fairly uncommon and typically only heard of in dogs. However, I believe it is more common than we are led to believe. Rob is now the 3rd person I have personally known who has been diagnosed with this deadly disease in our area. I believe we need to spread awareness and be on alert because this is deadly to humans and clearly we have higher amounts in our area than we realize.

I first met Rob when I was 16 years old and moved up here from the cities. He worked at Stewarts Automotive in Walker Mn. He immediately took me under his wing and basically taught me everything I know about cars. This man has worked on every vehicle I have owned and for a few years there, I owned many! lol. It wasn't until a few years ago that we finally made the connection and realized that his nephew was one of my very best friends in cities.

In the beginning of, May, I dropped off my daughter's Jeep to have him fix a few things. He called and apologized for taking so long but it would be done by the end of the week. He shared with me how he had been sick but finally went to the doctor and they prescribed antibiotics for bronchitis and pneumonia. When I went to go pick up the Jeep, Becky his significant other, met me outside and shared the news that he had gotten worse. She had brought him back into the emergency room but this time they had found a large mass on his lung and they were waiting to hear back from the pulmonary . Over the next few weeks, I reached out a few times and never heard anything back. So on our way out of town, I swung by his house and there wasn't a single vehicle in the yard. Which was exstremally unusal! Upon talking with a mutral friend of ours I learned that the hospital had misdiagnosed him with cancer and that he in fact had Blastomycosis. I was super thankful to hear such news but at the same time, I know firsthand how extremely dangerous this disease is and how long the road to recovery can be. To be completely frank he will probably never fully recover from this.

I am going to copy and paste the story that Becky, Rob’s significant other shared on Facebook back in July about their experience below:

I would like to share our family's journey over the past couple of months. I am sharing in hopes that it will help at least one person. To save them from going through the same experience we went through. I was aware of BLASTOMYCOSIS in pets, but not humans! My better half Rob Geschwill came down with a very severe case. After repeated trips to the doctors and emergency room visits, he was told he had bronchitis & the start of pneumonia, they treated him with antibiotics. That did absolutely nothing in his case because it was not bacterial. I ended up taking him in again and then they diagnosed him with lung cancer and set him up to meet with a Pulmonary Dr. However, he did not make it to that appointment because sepsis shock had set in and was starting to shut down his vital organs. He was sent to Fargo Hospital, where thankfully they finally got the dignosis correct after a few days of testing and started treating him for Blastomycosis. He was out cold on a ventilator for 2 week before he started the fight of a lifetime to recover. He still has a long journey ahead to complete recovery. At least he is home now..with his family.

The Dr's and staff were completely shocked that he pulled through this.

During this time I did a lot of research. Learning everything I could about it.

So if you are an outdoors person around bodies of water with any ecological changes or digging in the dirt or even driving down an extremely dusty road, pay attention to your health. It could save your life.

A simple blood test!!! So if you notice a cough that just don't go away, GET TESTED! there are also many other side effects. Talk to your Dr about it.

This can be a very serious fungal that can grow in your lungs and affect your body.

Rob will continue to get back to health day by day! It will be months of PT/OT/ DIALYSIS.

He was left with kidney damage, which we do not know at this point if it's permanent. Dialysis 3 times a week in Cass Lake thankfully it's close to home. This fungas turned our world upside down. He is very thankful for his God given second chance.

Written by: Becky Young

Rob is the primary provider for his family. As you can imagine times are very tough, he hasn’t beable to work since the beginning of May. That is almost 4 1/2 months without an almost 4 1/2 months without an income. Their savings is depleted and the bills just keep accumulating The family is struggling to keep afloat and has had to start selling personal property to make ends meet. This is where YOU come into play. Our community has always come together in the time of need and this family needs us now!! Please help stupport this family with anything thing you can. Even if you only donate $1 dollar it will only take 25,000 1 dollar bills to meet our goal! So PLEASE SHARE and help us help this family but ALSO, help us spread the word to raise awareness about BLASTOMYCOSIS.

Thank you in advance and please if you are unable to donate, just hit the share button and pass it along.