Brandon’s Story

Site created on February 3, 2023

Life is an adventure. And that's the beauty. Living it with the people you love and admire makes the ride worth every second. 

We have been struggling with Brandon's health the past year and a half. It has continued to ratchet down over 2022. And as we rolled into the Fall of 2022, unbelievable  and confusing events continued to unfold. He's lost close to 60lbs over the past year. We have been told over and over by one doctor to the next to "eliminate his physical activity, eliminate these foods. eliminate those foods, eliminate thinking, eliminate... eliminate, eliminate." His body has decided to stop working in various ways over the past year ... which has led us to a crazy ass game of "symptom wack a mole" dealing with the most alarming eruption at that moment, that day, that week. 

My brilliant husband and I spent the last year researching and talking to ALL the doctors and getting ALL the test and working with ALL the teams to try and uncover the root cause of the cluster fuck that has become Brandon's body and our life.  Trust in us, that we have turned over EVERY fucking rock. 

After the most painful and torturous year of our life - in all senses: mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. We found the answer. And we were validated with our answer by the team of docs in AZ. 

Brandon's diagnosis is - Microemboli - in my non-medical description - Brandon's blood has a hereditary predisposition to micro clotting. Triggers such as.... viruses, physical trauma, high histamine foods, etc. can cause his body to start over producing micro clots. When this happens, the micro clots/fibrin coat his capillaries... starving his muscles/organs/brain/entire body of oxygen. The slew of symptoms that coincide with this deprivation of oxygen are horrifying and life-threatening.

We have hope, but are also realistic. We will continue to do our best,  but know that our best might not be enough. We have peace and know that god has a plan. 

Newest Update

Journal entry by Briana Gilles

Hello All,

Since Brandon passed, friends and family have reached out asking how they might make a donation in his honor. Thank you for your offered generosity and kindness, it truly warms my heart.

I have decided that all donations that we receive will be passed on to others in similar medical situations as Brandon was. He spent his entire illness sharing his thoughts and experiments, successes and failures, not only in an attempt to help himself, but to help others along the way.

Offering some financial aid to others who have spent months, years, or decades trying to get out of an illness that seems to have no end feels like a tiny bit of good I can do. Getting to honor my husband... my loving, warm, silly, joyful and beautifully generous soul of a husband... well, quite frankly, that just feels like the most amazing gift for me.

Thank you for asking how you might honor him.

Thank you for sending our family your thoughts and love.

Thank you for gifting me this opportunity to send Brandon's spirit and joy to others in need.

With Gratitude,
Briana

Donation Link: (Caring Bridge is tricky with links - copy and paste below)

https://www.gofundme.com/f/helping-others-in-honor-of-brandon?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

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