Brian Snyder

We thought it would be best to let you hear about Brian's condition directly from him.  He shared this information with friends on Feb 21st, 2020:

Last Friday, completely out of nowhere, I found out I have stage four cancer in my lower esophagus. It has already spread into my lymph nodes and my liver. 

I Will Beat This!!!

Everything is on a fast track and moving quickly, I will be doing a week of direct radiation on esophagus tumor. Before jumping into heavy chemo.
Unfortunately on Feb 19th, I developed a bad blood clot in my leg that has spread in my lungs and it slowed things down a bit. This situation got addressed immediately and I was admitted to Novant (Matthews) hospital for this whole weekend. Monday, Feb. 24th  I'm being transferred to the main hospital to get a chemo port installed as well as a feeding tube. I go straight to radiation on Tuesday for a week, then on to a course of heavy chemo.

I've only been able to get down liquids For over 3 weeks and now I can't even get liquids down the last 4 days because my throat is so closed off.
What is completely surreal is the cause of all this was basic acid reflux, stomach acid got up into the bottom of my esophagus and damaged the cell walls.

Look at me, I managed to get something that is only 1% of reported cancer every year... finally a 1%er :) 

Gonna be a bumpy ride for a bit, but:

I Am Absolutely Positive I Will Beat This!!!
There is no other acceptable alternative.
I will see my son graduate from high school...
I will see my son graduate college...
I will hold my son's children in my lap one day, a long time from now...