Robert Brannigan jr’s Brain Cancer Battle

No one ever expects it but a few weeks ago on January 31st 2024 our lives were changed forever. Me and my son were laughing our way to the eye doctor saying how we were going to take our time so he didn’t have to get back to class right away, little did we know this one little trip for some glasses was going to end up being an ambulance ride 2 hours away to Charleston children’s hospital, 2 Brain surgeries, 3 additional surgeries and a Brain Cancer diagnosis…

Robert had been having trouble with extreme thirst and his bladder for about a year and the urologist couldn’t make a real diagnosis so just gave him some pills for a while and when we started noticing his eyes were getting bad, blurred vision being a side effect, we stopped using the medication. When we spoke to the urologist he said since we had discontinued the medication his eyes should have gone back to normal, and that was about all he said. Since his eyes were bad for a few weeks we decided to make him an appointment with an eye doctor, Dr Barb Horn (our angel).

Dr. Horn ran a bunch of tests on Roberts eyes an came to the conclusion that his eyes were not the problem. She was the first person to realize we had a deeper issue and sent us immediately to the ER where they ran a cat scan and found 3 masses in my son’s brain. The emergency room sent him by ambulance 2 hours away to the children’s hospital in Charleston where they took an MRI and confirmed that the masses were pressuring Robert’s optic nerves and said that they needed to do a biopsy through his nose and into the brain. Unfortunately that biopsy wasn’t what they needed, so back to surgery for my 14 year old again, this time they had to go through the back of his skull. This was a 12 hour surgery but they did get what they needed.

However when they did the second surgery to his brain in a week, he developed hydrocephalus (water in the brain) and they needed to do another emergency surgery to put a drain in the top of his head to relieve the pressure. He had been sleeping and in horrible pain for 3 days before they got it in, so it was somewhat of a relief from the pain. Robert remained strong throughout this entire process and honestly I can’t imagine at 14 being faced with this kind of challenge. My son hasn’t been able to see anything in 3 weeks and will not get his eyesight back until a few rounds of chemo shrink his tumor.The biopsy results finally came in and luckily it is a highly treatable type of cancer, Germinoma . Robert has since had a port put into his chest and had to have a shunt put into his skull permanently. So in 3 weeks he’s had 5 surgeries, been basically blind and diagnosed with brain cancer.

And because Roberts cancer had spread, there is a chance it will come back, so we really need to do treatment the right way the first time in order to minimize the possibility of a reoccurrence.

This is where we have reached our first financial hurdle. Proton radiation is a newer type of radiation that the doctors say he will need, the problem is here in South Carolina that type of radiation is not yet available, the most closely affiliated facility with our system of doctors is in Jacksonville Florida where we will need to be for at least 6 weeks. We don’t know how many rounds of chemo Robert will need to start radiation so it creates issues with trying to use a Ronald McDonald house type of situation. They’re pretty well booked and they could potentially have availability but not knowing when we need to be there makes it really hard to work things out.

Let’s face it, if you’re this far into our story you probably know me and you probably realize how hard this is for me to have to write and you probably know that I would do literally anything for my children. Now before I turn into John Q at the hospital I thought maybe people that know me or maybe not even know me could help us to get through this nightmare of a situation. The expenses will be astronomical with copays on medicine ,doctors visits ,hospital stays , traveling to Charleston constantly, staying in Florida for 2 months in the summer, not to mention all the new things we need for him like travel wheelchairs, shower chairs, railings for assistance, all types of things around both houses.

None of us are the type of people to ask for anything and if you know me you know there’s not a lot of people who can ever say I did wrong by them and there’s even less that can say I didn’t help them when I could. So with all my pride aside for my son I’m asking you for your help, and even if you can’t help financially I would very much appreciate it if you can share this and please say a prayer or whatever you may do to help my son, we will very much appreciate it . As a parent this situation is unimaginable to deal with but the strength of my son is what gets us through it

all !