Brandon was diagnosed at 17 with a pure germinoma of the basal ganglia. By twelve Brandon was suffering severe visual and auditory hallucinations and severely depressed. He had 27 psychiatric hospitalizations in four years,. He had around that time an MRI of the brain and what was mistakenly seen in the basal ganglia as calcifications was the tumor. After the last psychiatric hospitals three different hospitals told us this cannot be a psychiatric illness, there’s got to be something medical and neurological going on, since antipsychotic meds aren’t helping. Around the age of 16 Brandon is having trouble walking, slur speech still severely hallucinating, by his seventeen birthday Brandon cannot longer swallow, talk and walk. Finally after discussions of possible neurodegenerative diseases,tests were done and results were negative, a brain biopsy was done and the so called tennis size calcification in his basal ganglia had already extended to the parietal part of the brain, …. we were given the news of Brandon having a cancerous tumor. The tumor was shrunk with chemo and radiation. The doctors couldn’t remove it. Brandon is now 23, bedridden, cannot speak and every day is a painful picture of my son. But his smile lights up the room and his faith in Our Lord Jesus and His Blessed Mother is a blessing to me as his mother and his family.
