Dan Loughney

Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.

On Thursday, April 14, Dan was diagnosed with a brain tumor in his left frontal lobe.  It's called a Glioma and is 4.1 x 4.25 cm (the size of a golf ball).  It is unknown at this time if it is cancerous or not but either way, it needs to come out.  Dan has chosen to complete his semester at the University of Wisconsin Stout and then we will head out to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester May 11 for a biopsy and consultation with the neurologist and neurosurgeon that will be working with Dan.  These doctors are some of the best in the country and we are blessed that they will be on our team in this journey.

It all started January 25, 2016 while Dan was working at the bowling alley in Menomonie.  He had worked a very long shift and had not eaten anything.  It was towards the end of his shift when he felt tingling in his right arm that migrated up to the right side of his face and he felt like his right eye and the right side of his mouth were drooping during this episode as well.  It lasted about 30 seconds.  He alerted coworkers and an ambulance was called.  He was brought in to the ER and seen by Dr. Rich.  He had some lab work completed and an EKG was done as well while in the ER.  He was no longer having any symptoms while in the ER.  It was noted that he possibly had an inferior infarct, age undetermined on the EKG (which means Dan "might" have had a heart attack on the bottom of the heart "sometime" - maybe) but probable normal variant and because he had the low blood sugar noted by EMS in the 50s, they suspected that his symptoms could be a hypoglycemic event.  Other possibilities included migraine or other rare causes.  It was recommended that he recheck if further concerns occur.

There were 4 more episodes that followed so it was decided to have an MRI done at the Mayo Clinic in Menomonie.  We were assuming that because Dan played football in high school and had at least 2 known concussions, it could possibly be a blood clot in the brain and this is what was causing the stroke-like symptoms.  It turned out that the seizures had nothing to do with Dan playing football or the possible concussions that he had during middle school and high school.  In the meantime it was felt that his episodes are likely seizures occurring because of the brain mass. 


Dan is now placed on Keppra 500 mg (anti-seizure medication) 1 1/2 tablets 2 times a day which makes him very drowsy but will hopefully ward off the stroke-like symptoms. He is currently concentrating on his end of the semester projects, presentations, papers and preparing for his finals next week.  We are blessed to have the support of our family and friends during this difficult journey. We thank you for keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers.