Tom “Buck” Masterson

Hi Friends and family, Erin here. I’m looking to help support my dad Tom as he is going through a very scary and unknown medical emergency. About 5 weeks ago- he started developing some odd numbness sensations that would come and go on one side of his face- didn’t think too much of it as he is healthy, active and relatively in great condition! Time went on and the symptoms started to develop into what we thought was Bell’s palsy- he was treated for that but continued to get sicker- symptoms got worse and new symptoms arose. Severe nerve pain started in his legs, facial paralysis along with severe nerve pain in face got worse, he couldn’t properly eat due to numbness, started losing weight (25lbs total) and couldn’t sleep at night due to severe leg pain. He tried pushing through, working, being a grandpa, husband, dad all while feeling terrible thinking it was related to this Bell’s palsy. By week 5 he couldn’t take it anymore. Feeling very sick and exhausted he decided to get to navicent medical center in middle

Georgia where they ended up admitting him. He then quickly took a turn for the worse. Within a day, his legs were completely paralyzed yet he still had excruciating pain, pain and paralysis now on both sides of his face, blurred and double vision, hard to speak and swallow due to paralysis. His wife Chris was by his side and as soon as my family and I got back into town I was there as well. Both Chris and I being nurses (my sister Danielle, also a nurse and expecting her first baby, is working hard to logistically get from Wisconsin down here to help us and has been communicating with us via phone throughout)- we’ve been advocating and helping all we can. He’s had a milllionare dollar work up - 5 MRI’s, 4 CT’s, EMG, Spinal tap, work up for guillian barre among every other rare anomalies they can think of. He has Neurologists on the case, internal medicine, ENT, infectious disease - everyone working around the clock to tell us everyday - “we’ve never seen anything like this” “this is something very rare”, “we don’t know how to treat this”. So they keep trying every antibiotic, steroid, testing for anything they can think of, IvIG treatment, more testing. He’s exhausted and just wants answers and to feel better. The MRI of the orbitals did come back with some alarming results- they see something on the scan that appears to be lesions/infection/mass - some sort of abnormality below the brain but affecting the cranial nerves and “whatever” this is, travels from the sphenoid bone to the maxillary (cheek bone) to the sinus cavity and possibly the base of skull. The medical center we are at has informed us that we need a biopsy to determine what we are dealing with- cancer, infection, autoimmune disease …. But they are not equipped to perform the biopsy bc of the risks involved and the complexity of the location. We’ve been trying for 4 days to transfer him to a medical center that can handle this care and perform the biopsy. With biopsy results, we can hopefully receive some answers and then treat properly. We’ve been in contact with Mayo Jacksonville, Emory, Vanderbilt, Duke, UAB, MUSC and several others and every place has stated they are full, no capacity. That we need to just keep calling, checking if a bed is open for transfer. Its been very defeating to know he needs further testing and we have to sit and wait, hoping to get in somewhere better. Yesterday- Friday 6/15, I finally got through to Mayo and they were open for transfer- we’ve jumped through hoops to try and move him there this weekend/Monday, getting them all the paper work and images they need. Expense is an issue for Mayo and we have to come up front with money to get my dad there. We will do it as we are trying to save his life. But I don’t need my dad to be worrying about finances when he needs to be focused on saving his life. This brings me here- to all of you. If anyone feels led to help my dad- please contribute. Anything can help! We don’t know what the future holds but we know he needs this biopsy and I’m sure further testing; possibly surgery and then treatment to hopefully return him to the quality of life he was living! More then anything- we ask for prayers. Prayers for strength, guidance, answers and healing ❤️‍

Love you all. Erin

Please help us get our dad, husband, grandpa and friend back. Love Patrick, Erin, Logan, Luke, Harper, Haddie, Danielle, Adam, Baby to come, Chris and ALL of his many friends and family members!