By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Brittani Burnat gave birth to a healthy baby boy on Nov. 12. Nine days later, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Last week she had a biopsy, and this week she and her family are waiting … again.
Waiting has become a way of life for Burnat and her mom, Diane Fisher.
Burnat, 35, of Bowling Green, has overcome health crises before. In 2018, she began having vision problems and was diagnosed with Panuveitis, an inflammation that can cause reduced vision or blindness. Her doctors kept running tests, and her eyesight kept getting worse. She was told nothing more could be done for her.
Despite blurry vision and crippling headaches, Burnat continued working when she was able at Brewing Green.
Two years later, Burnat was referred to the Cole Eye Institute at Cleveland Clinic. She was diagnosed with Non Hodgkins lymphoma in her eyes, and underwent two types of chemotherapy.
Then this past November, Burnat had a “wonderful, very healthy” baby she named Tobias. Soon after she began having debilitating headaches and blurry vision. A scan revealed a tumor.
So last week, Burnat had a biopsy of the brain tumor, which was the size of a walnut. She is waiting for results. Medication is helping with the swelling and the pain … but the waiting is brutal.
“The bad days suck the life out of you,” Burnat said, adding it’s agonizing to not know what’s next. “What is the plan?”
Having a child makes the waiting even more difficult, Burnat said earlier this week as Tobias slept in the arms of his father, Ryan Coutchure.
“This is not the way I wanted to be a mom,” she said. Staying overnight at the hospital, away from Tobias, after the brain biopsy was heart-wrenching. “That tore me up.”
While her worries are magnified now, so is her determination to beat this.
“He’s my little light,” Burnat said.
“He’s her reason to fight,” her mom said.
“I have to remember that some days,” Burnat said.
“This is all very scary. We are just taking it one day at a time,” Fisher said. “Some days are just more cruel than others.”
Back in 2021, after the diagnosis of cancer in her eyes, Fisher set up a GoFundMe page for her daughter.
“Life has changed drastically for her/us. Who would have thought cancer would be something she would have to face and fight. Financial hardship is real and scary and we didn’t know how it would grow. We had no clue how this would affect us mentally, physically and financially,” Fisher wrote. “This journey has been challenging but eventually we will rise above and be stronger because of it.”
During the height of Burnat’s vision problems, her mom wrote, “I can’t wait till my daughter can see everyone’s smiling face again as well as her own beautiful face.”
“It’s hard as a mom to see her go through this,” Fisher said. “It’s been a long drawn-out process. She’s a strong girl – that’s for sure.”
Burnat has Medicaid health coverage that takes care of most medical bills. The funds donated by community members during her vision problems got Burnat through tough times by helping pay monthly bills when she wasn’t able to work. It paid for trips to Cleveland Clinic and overnight stays for her mom during surgeries.
But most of that money is gone now, so Burnat and Fisher are asking the community to again be generous if able.
“She’s grown a great community of support,” her mom said.
Burnat is unable to work right now – which is doubly difficult because she loves her job. Due to her own health issues, her mom is on disability from her job as a massage therapist. So they are currently in debt, “up to our eyeballs,” Fisher said.
The mom and daughter – plus baby Tobias – share a government-subsidized apartment in Bowling Green, and are behind in their electric and water bills.
“I hate being on public assistance. I hate having to use a SNAP card” for food, Fisher said. “But what else can we do?”
Anyone wanting to help is asked to donate at:
