Supporting the Bryant Family

Hi, my name is Kristin Backus. On behalf of myself and husband Nick we are asking for your help and prayers at this time for a close friend of ours who is battling cancer. Our friend Jason Bryant.  For many families who have kids in sports you can relate to how close families become as your kids grow up in a sport together. In our case, not only did our boys grow up playing ball together our husbands coached many years together. Our baseball days  may have come to and end but our friendship continues on. I have to say it is never easy asking for help. Especially during difficult times such as these when your focus and energy need to be on healing and health. And by starting this GoFund me account we are hoping we can come together to spread the word and share to help a family who needs all our support right now. 

I spoke to his wife Christy as she explained everything that has been going on with his diagnosis.

In June of 2021 Jason got hurt at work. (He is a Detroit Fire Fighter) On June 14th they did anX-ray, it showed a strained lower lumbar. He was then placed on a leave. He then went to see another doctor who ordered an MRI. The MRI showed up as a bulged disk L5 S1. He was then put in physical therapy. Not long after he started to urinate blood so we took him straight to the ER.

That's where they did a cat scan which ended up showing a tumor in his left kidney and they believe it was cancer. They referred us to a urologist. Who then ordered another MRI with contrast.

He was going to try and save at least 40% of his kidney.

On August 2, Dr. Nelson had to remove his whole left kidney, adrenal gland, uretter tube and lymph nodes. Sent biopsies in confirmed it was Renal cell carcinoma. Although, check ups showed he was cancer free .

In between all this Jason was doing Physical therapy. During one of his sessions, he was in traction and his back broke. He was sent back to the doctor who referred him to a Neurologist.

( DR.To. ) who then ordered another MRI. We then discovered it may have spread from his kidney to L5 area.

On March 24th 2022 he had L4S1 fusion Lumbar 5 Corpectomy. That's when he tried to remove the tumor. Jason was losing a lot of blood so he had to stop. The Dr. was not able to get all of the tumor. Fusion went well. The next day in hospital he was complaining about his leg so they ordered another scan to see what was going on and Surgeon discovered the tumor had grown since the last MRI and now it sits on his S1 .

After another follow up with oncologist Jason has started radiation 4-5-22 -4-18-22. With radiation it takes time and really depends on if his body will accept and start to kill off cancer cells. When we spoke to Jason’s oncologist about possibly doing chemo we were told that with renal cell carcinoma the chemo would laugh at it and not usually take. There may be a clinical trial that he could try. We have not yet discussed next part of this process and will follow up on the 4/27/22.

Again, we would appreciate any help along with prayers for the Bryant Family.  So please share this page ❤️

Thank you, 

Nick and Kristin Backus