Immediate assistance for Lars’ urgent care

Hello! Lars and Brendon are dear friends of mine and I wanted to share a little bit of what is currently going on in their lives right now.

Lars has an undiagnosed illness that requires emergency cranial surgery at Providence St. Vincent medical center on Monday. It is the only remaining option to try and diagnose/fix whatever is happening to him. He started having headaches in mid-December, but those headaches blossomed into crippling migraines, and have become debilitating so that he is no longer able to function properly on a daily basis. He has severe nausea, loss of appetite, and weight loss. He doesn't sleep, and his lymph nodes have been swelling increasingly. He has been out of work since January 13th.

Nobody was able to determine what was wrong after several urgent care and hospital visits because his MRI's don't show anything in the images. An ER referral to a specialist at OHSU helped determine that he has 3 growths on his head. One of them is growing down, and is eroding his skull bone potentially causing his head pain. It is paramount that this growth doesn't reach his brain.

His case is unique in that the specialist told us she does not know what is happening, and that she's never had any case like his before. She's been consulting with her colleagues around the country about possible diagnosis/treatment options; all agree that this surgery is necessary immediately. She is the only Dr. that is licensed to do this type of operation in Oregon.

The surgery that he is having is major and will take 4-5 weeks of recovery as a best case scenario. This is assuming that the biopsy of the fragments removed don't show cancer or an infectious disease of some sort. He will be in the hospital for a week minimum, assuming the same best case scenario. He will lose his vision, and ability to care for himself on his own for the foreseeable future until he is healed. He will not be able to leave the house for at least 4 weeks once he is home. He will have his head wrapped and on strict bed rest.

The procedure is a deep bone biopsy of the right frontal bone, and excision of the right scalp cyst. Essentially he has to have his scalp peeled off his head so that the Dr. can remove the growths from his skull. He will lose the ability to grow hair, and the first week of recovery will be extremely difficult. He is unable to work now, and will be unable for the foreseeable future. He has lost 100% of his income.

It's difficult to state the impact this has and will have. Everything has progressed at hyperspeed to this point. The medical prognosis is difficult to assess. We hope for the best, but it's very real that we will have to deal with the worst. Nobody will know until after the surgery. Financially the loss is difficult to state. He doesn't have the ability to pay for anything anymore, nor will he for a few months.

We are hoping that friends and loved ones are able to help Lars and Brendon through this trying time with financial contributions. We realize that times are tough right now for many, but sharing this post will also be a huge help to bring visibility to what Lars is having to endure. We thank you all and please put some good vibes out there for Lars ❤️