Hey y'all, my name is Ty Christiana, and I am setting this up in support of my friend and former co-worker, Brandon. For those that do or don't know Brandon, he is an easy-going, hard-working, who would give you the shirt off his back, amazing dad and friend. Unfortunately, about four days ago, he experienced a freak medical emergency that has taken him out of work and away from his kids, who he loves dearly.

Brandon had to be transported to the ER by ambulance at 3 a.m. this morning for stroke symptoms (slurred speech, paralyzed on the right side of his body, twitching, hard to see out of his right eye). His symptoms are in and out, which has the doctors perplexed. Both CT scans came back mostly clear; contrast CT slightly showed a concern on the right artery in his neck but could be an issue with contrast, so we're waiting on back and neck MRI to confirm. EEG just took place, so we're waiting on results for seizure activity. EKG was normal. We don't have many answers yet and don't know what caused this. He has been admitted, and now we pray and wait.

Please, please pray hard for answers, clarity, and healing. My heart is breaking seeing him like this. Thank you to all who have helped and reached out so far—we appreciate you more than you know. Please just keep praying.

❤️

UPDATE 1 on 1/13:

We are sitting up! Right hand had two movements (reflexes) this morning which is better than yesterday. Speech is slightly better today. Waiting to see if we can get off seizure meds since EEG was clear. He’s a fighter! Waiting to see neurologist and hospitalist to see about the results from the MRI yesterday. He’s tired of being in the bed so we’re hoping PT can help him get to the shower today to get him cleaned up. We’re getting his muscles stretched out to try and wake them up some. He can feel to the touch which isn’t new but good that it hasn’t gone away.

Will update again once we have results from MRI and detail on next steps.

In the mighty name of Jesus, all things are possible.

UPDATE 2 on 1/13:

The attending neurologist, Dr. Ku, came in just now and said contrast MRI was clean outside of that right side vertebral artery we knew about yesterday. No signs of MS or tumor which is good. I’m so happy that he is now ordering a spinal tap and more tests for today to look for autoimmune issues which is what I wanted to happen. The spinal tap would also point to signs of Guillain-Barre or Miller Fisher syndrome if they are present. They are also taking him off the seizure meds. They don’t feel a DSA is necessary at this time but could be something we circle back to. His reflex test failed on his arm but his leg showed a reflex which is good! Dr. said usually if it’s Guillain-Barre or Miller Fisher, you’re not going to get a reflex so that’s a good sign. Worst case if all these don’t show answers, we start over with scans, etc. I’m so happy to hear they’re not going to just call it a stroke and just send him to rehab and this Dr. seems more concerned to get to the root of the issue! Happy about that.

We are trying to get clearance for him to be able to be in a wheelchair so we can get him out of the bed and roll him around a bit.

I feel we are close to answers! I have more faith in this neurologist and feel he is on the same page as us about testing.

UPDATE 3:

Well, we have an answer. While in the MRI of the spine this morning, they added an MRI of the brain where they saw something new and a stroke has now shown up.

Our answer is a stroke on the left side. Now infectious disease Dr. is looking into spinal tap results to see if he can figure out what caused it at 32 years old. They’re doing more testing to still look into why. He will go into in-patient therapy in the next day or so for a few weeks to start working on improving his right side movement to see if he can regain anything over time.

Please pray for mental and physical strength and healing of the right side of his body. Pray for strength for us all too.

Our God is stronger. ❤️

Brandon has now been transferred to Baylor to begin rehab of his right arm and leg as well as speech therapy. He will be there for at least two weeks. Thank you for your continued prayers and support!