Breath of Life: Brannon Spector reflects on 2021, his surgery, and mom's cancer

Brannon Spector feels like he has a new lease on life.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Mar 28 20:59:49 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – Wide receiver Brannon Spector spent the majority of 2021 wondering if he would be able to play football again. Hoping beyond hope that his breathing would return to normal. Praying that his mother would recover from colon cancer.

So far, 2022 has given Spector the breath of life.

Spector, a redshirt freshman out of Calhoun, Georgia, enters 2022 with 19 career catches for 152 yards and two rushes for 21 yards in 221 snaps over 14 games (one start). However, he missed all of the 2021 season as he recovered from COVID, dealt with reflux issues, and his mother’s sickness.

Spector met with the media following Monday’s practice, and during what at times was a tear-filled 15-minute interview, detailed his journey back from the brink and what it was like to return to the practice field and the game he loves.

“Honestly, a blessing. It's been a long year, but this is great being out here doing what I love,” Spector said at the beginning of the interview. “It's just a breath of life. Fresh air again, just a blessing.”

Spector said it all started last February.

“So, yeah, it's been a long journey. In February, I got diagnosed with COVID, and then early in March, I started to notice I wasn't recovering just for some odd reason,” Spector said. “My breathing just never really got better. And then it just really lasted for a while. And along with the breathing came some other side effects. I won't get all into it, but it lasted into December, and I had to have surgery. But I had surgery. And anyway, it's been a life-changing surgery for me, and it's obviously been enough help to get me back on the field.”

Spector said that he never felt like he could breathe, and simple tasks made him feel like he couldn’t catch his breath. There was also the addition of something – acid reflux that caused him to change his diet to nothing but plain grilled chicken, rice, and broccoli.

Multiple tests didn’t show anything wrong, including MRIs, but Spector knew that something was still wrong. And then a specialist stepped in with the correct diagnosis.

“There is a valve right here (pointing to his diaphragm) that caps off your stomach. And my valve after COVID just quit functioning properly, which that caused all the acid reflux in my stomach to shoot up into my esophagus and spreas up into my lungs,” Spector explained. “And it gave me asthmatic symptoms. And for the longest time, going to doctor's appointments all around Georgia, back home, doctors here in Clemson and Greenville, we just couldn't really figure out what's going on. The X rays, everything looks fine, the MRIs and everything. I did a heart MRI and everything set up fine.

“And then I remember it's just this one specialist, she had mentioned something about my esophagus, and she had given me a supplement called Gaviscon. I know it's crazy. I'm giving this to the media, but, yeah, Gaviscon, this is the product you need if you have any acid reflux. But no, the one specialist, her name is Andrea. Shout out to Andrea. She really gave me a diagnosis and showed me kind of a pathway to go to get help. And once we figured out it was the GERD issue, I did all these tests where they were running tubes down my nose, down my throat, and always my stomach was just miserable.”

Gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) occurs when stomach acid flows back into the esophagus (the tube connecting your mouth and stomach). This backwash of stomach secretions into the esophagus (acid reflux) can irritate the lining of your esophagus. GERD has similar symptoms to COVID, but the specialist was able to give Spector the correct diagnosis and schedule a December surgery.

“The test showed that despite the fact I was on the strongest acid reflux medicine there was, it was not enough. It wasn't even helping,” Spector said. “So during the surgery they basically went in and reconstructed this valve right here.”

The surgery is called Nissen fundoplication, a surgery to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease. During the procedure, a surgeon creates a sphincter (tightening muscle) at the bottom of the esophagus to prevent acid reflux. Most people notice a significant decrease in acid reflux symptoms after the surgery.

The surgery was on December 9th, and by Christmas Spector noticed he was starting to breathe better than he had at any point during the previous 10 months. But there was another issue the family was dealing with – his mother’s colon cancer.

“My mother had gotten diagnosed with stage three colon cancer, and I got sick. And at the time when she got diagnosed, I was praying, ‘Lord, give me the pain, because I knew she was going through it,” Spector said as the tears started to flow. “And as a son, you don't want to see a mother go to that. But I wasn't expecting what I got. But I don't know. It was just a lot going on, but my family has been there. My family is growing so much closer. My granny passed in June and an uncle passed a month later. It was just tough a tough year. But my mom’s cancer-free now. I'm back on the field. It's been a true blessing.”

Spector said his mother underwent the required chemotherapy regimen, and recent scans have come back clean. As he walked out onto the practice field last month for the first time in over a year, he was almost overcome with emotion.

“I could have cried. I'm still in disbelief of me being back out here. Honestly, I thought I would maybe get through routes on air and go and sit on the sideline, but I haven't missed a period,” he said. “It’s incredible. It's almost emotional to talk about. I prayed many nights. I knew people would tell me, ‘You'll be back out there but I knew something was wrong with me. I wasn't going to be able to get it right unless I had some type of surgery. But the most frustrating part was not knowing for so long what was going on. And I'm sure anybody out there that has issues and they don't have a diagnosis can say the same exact thing. It's very frustrating when you don't know what's going on. But yeah, I can't really even answer your question. It's a lot right now.

“After the surgery, I had to go on a liquid diet for two weeks and that was miserable. I lost 25 pounds quickly and I noticed that my breathing was getting better after about three weeks. I could have cried because it's not breathing for an entire year and then finally getting a breath of fresh air. You're just like, this is an amazing life. It's just awesome.”

Spector worked his way back slowly and was cleared to resume workouts just in time for mat drills.

“I was on the bike starting off. It made my way into some walking and slow jogging and eventually, I'm doing mat drills,” he said. “Unfortunately, I came back and I was right into mat drills, but they adapted me into it and I'm happy to be back out.”

Spector can not only breathe easier; he can eat foods that taste a lot better.

“When I was sick, some nights I'd sleep for two or three hours and it messed with my head,” he said. “And then I was able to eat a little more normal by the first of the year. I went a whole year without eating anything good, basically the blandest food you can possibly eat. I ate that for an entire year and then I could finally eat again. That was great. My mom could have cried when I had some wings again or pizza. But this tastes pretty good. It's nice to be able to enjoy food again because beforehand I would eat, and then I couldn’t breathe because my throat was closing up.”

He admitted that he is once again enjoying steak, pasta, wings, and drinking milk, all foods that he wasn’t able to consume last year. But now he’s back to around 200 pounds, and he’s already looking forward to running down the hill with his teammates during the spring game.

"It was tough watching my teammates run down the hill," he said. "I would sit there on the sidelines and watch. I can't wait to get back out there," he said.