This Friday there is a benefit concert being held to help my brother out, primarily with medical expenses. My wonderful cousin Cassi has spear-headed the event, which will feature some local musicians as well as entertainer Jason Hewlett. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Jason and I’m sure the evening will be a blast.

Details: the concert will be held on Friday February 4th, 2011 at the Waterford School in Sandy, UT. Doors open at 6PM for a bake sale and silent auction, and the concert begins at 7 PM. To buy tickets online or find out more, visit dansloanconcert.com. Tickets are $15 for one person or $35 for a pack of four. Tickets can also be purchased at the door on the evening of the 4th.

So what about my brother, Dan?

The short version? Limited insurance, recently ended seasonal employment, and expensive medical attention needed to respond to a rather large (and dangerous) tumor in his head.

A couple months ago, after having his eyes checked to discover the source of some trouble with his vision, Dan was ordered an MRI and shortly thereafter found out he had a very large tumor in his brain. Yikes.

The neurologist he then consulted supposed that, due to the relative scarcity and mildness of symptoms in Dan, that the tumor must have been growing for quite some time and was probably benign. It wasn’t urgent enough to hospitalize him on the spot, but he’d need to get it out soon.

Well, Dan was in a bind. His job provided minimum health care benefits (about $10k maximum benefit), and on top of that, it was a seasonal job. Dan was looking at all kinds of uncertainty, surgery alone costing more than what he had in health insurance coverage, and not even coming close to covering time in the ICU and other care, testing and treatment.

He finally scheduled the surgery for the 19th of January. The surgery was a relative success– the doctors were able to remove a good chunk of that huge tumor, and Dan seemed to recover quickly from the surgery, leaving the hospital a couple days earlier than anticipated.

It turns out, however, that there was quite a bit of tumor they couldn’t remove without risking serious brain damage.

To make matters more concerning, the results of the biopsy on Dan’s tumor put it at grade 3– grade 1 being the least threatening and grade 4 being the most dangerous. The doctors say that a grade 3 could change to a grade 4 at any time. So instead of simply recovering from his recent head surgery, he’ll be meeting with some specialists to look at radiation treatment, which will be an additional expense.

So members of the family have rallied in an effort to raise funds to help Dan out. This is a good cause and there’s an evening of entertainment to be had in exchange for your contribution. Even if you can’t attend, even spreading the word about the event with others would be very much appreciated. And for those who wish to donate in lieu of or in addition to attending the concert, there is a paypal account set up for taking donations electronically (there is a charitable account set up at America First Credit Union in Dan’s behalf). It’s difficult to express how much your generosity is appreciated.

Lastly, I thought I’d let you know that Dan is in relatively good spirits, despite the uncertainty in front of him. He wants nothing more than to return to “normal” life being productive and serving others– it truly is humbling to be on the receiving end of such charity and service, and I’ve no doubt that both this experience with his health and the outpouring of love demonstrated through this charitable event will be completely life altering. Thank you to all who have bought tickets, donated and/or offered to help in any way possible.

Come have a good time with us on February 4th in Sandy if you can 🙂

UPDATE: February 3, 2011

Since Marianne has pointed people this way for an update on Dan, I figured I’d include the latest.

Dan started work with some specialists yesterday. They’ve sent a sample of his tumor off for analysis, and based on the DNA makeup of the tumor, they will be able to craft a more specific plan to fight this tumor, much of which still remains in Dan’s head. It may be radiation treatment alone, it may be a combination of radiation and chemo therapy, it will depend. In either case, it seems not unlikely that it’ll involve 6 weeks of radiation doses 5 days a week. The goal is to shrink and hopefully eventually eliminate the tumor. They made some sort of mask for him yesterday molded to his face / head which they’ll use in conjunction with an MRI to map out exactly where to apply radiation in order to target the tumor specifically and avoid other brain matter. Treatment is tentatively slated to start in the third week of February, so Dan still has a road ahead of him. Hopefully the side-effects will be minimal– hair loss in the field of radiation and fatigue, at least.

Thanks again for everyone’s continued interest and support in this battle Dan is fighting!