Eric started this journey in Jan when he had an episode of Vertigo. He was treated and got better but then in May he started getting dizzy, double vision and severe fatigue. We got him into the Drs in Stevens Point. After an Spinal Tap Eric was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. We went through a treatment of IV steroids and started meds and got better for about a month. In Aug he started to decline again and his symptoms were back and he was having trouble swallowing and opening his mouth. We were admitted to the Stevens Point hospital on Aug 30, 2020. After 2 days our neurologist said he no longer believed Eric had MS but a form of encephalitis. He was not sure if the kind and we requested to be transferred to Mayo in Rochester MN. We were there from Sept 2- 13. There they found a mass in his left testicle and they felt that the mass was sending off antibodies that was telling his immune system to attack his brain stem. This is what it was. The mass was not cancer thank goodness and was removed. They diagnosed Eric with Kelch like protein 11 paraneoplastic encephalitis. This is something that they just discovered last year at mayo. They did another 5 day round of steroid infusions started OT for his vision, had to put in an NG tube for feedings and we had a plan to see the specialist in a couple weeks. We left after 11 days at St Mary’s 1 week later Eric was having a lot of issues with his swallowing and opening his mouth and felt like we needed to come back so we spent another 11 days at St Mary’s this time they did 3 days of iv steroids and his first Chemotherapy treatment to help suppress his immune system from attacking itself. He also got an injection into his paralyzed vocal cord and a peg tube placed in his stomach for feedings. We went home after 11 days with a plan of weekly steroid infusions back home for 12 weeks and another chemo on oct. 12 On Sunday oct 4 Eric’s Oxygen stats were low and he was confused, weak, and very tired. We went to the ER and found that he has a small blood clot in his lung and that the muscle relaxers he was on made him not expel the CO2 from his body because it relaxed his diaphragm too much. That in combination with the brain stem issue was too much and the CO2 in his blood got really high. He was air lifted back to Mayo that night and we are current in the ICU at Mayo working on getting the CO2 in his blood down and working on his breathing they have him on a bipap machine to help with this. Thank you for all your love and prayers Mary, Sam & Candice
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