LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – A young Lubbock man hopes his story will encourage others to advocate for their own health, after a debilitating migraine kept him from his dream job for about a month.
Growing up in Friona with family in the industry, Brayden Pope always knew his future was in meat processing.
“I always had the dream of having my own facility, but didn’t know it’d be this soon. And we just fell into the perfect opportunity,” Pope said.
He and his wife, Kyra, opened Pope Meat Company in Lockney just six months ago. They had one of their busiest months in September, but just before it was over, Brayden experienced a severe migraine episode.
“I was on the processing floor. We were breaking down the first beef of the day and I started getting the auras from my hemiplegic migraines,” Brayden said.
He called Kyra, who was already on her way to the facility.
“I don’t really remember much after that except for waking up in the hospital,” Brayden said.
Kyra had planned to take him to pick up their daughter and go home to let him rest.
“By the time we got to Canyon, he had the facial droop, you know, mimicking stroke symptoms, which is normal for his migraines, so we really didn’t think anything of it,” Kyra said. “We were going to let him rest. And then he started getting combative. And, you know, me and his mom were like, let’s just take him in.”
While Brayden had suffered from hemiplegic migraines before, this one was different.
“This time, he could only say three words. Yeah, okay, and no,” Kyra said.
After a few days at the hospital in Plainview with no answers, Kyra decided to bring him to Lubbock. For an entire week, Brayden couldn’t even say his own name.
“His neurologist says that he’s a red herring. Like, you know? They probably won’t ever see another in their career,” Kyra said.
Doctors diagnosed him with familial hemiplegic migraine, meaning the condition is genetic. They also discovered he has a small hole in his heart, which may be contributing to some of his issues.
After he was released from the hospital, it was time for therapy several times a week to get Brayden back to normal.
“I had lost all, pretty much a bunch of my motor skills and stuff, so handling a knife was all new to me again. The first few days, especially,” Brayden said.
In the meantime, their family helped keep the business going while friends they’ve only known since June jumped in to host fundraisers and a benefit cookoff.
“I mean, Braden has made such an impact on people in such a small amount of time. And then they’ve turned around and done the same for him. I mean, it’s just crazy,” Kyra said.
Kyra says this has only brought their family closer together and strengthened their faith.
“Wrenly, she just turned three yesterday. Anytime we pray before our food or anything, you know, at the end, if we don’t pray for daddy, ‘Hey, pray for my daddy,’ you know, or if he is laying around, she’ll come and ask me, ‘Does daddy have a headache? We need to pray for him,’” Kyra said.
They’re still waiting for answers to see how to keep these migraines at bay. At 28 years old, Kyra says Brayden shouldn’t have to worry about falling asleep one night and not waking up.
“We have little kids and we’re expecting another one and they need their dad and he needs to be able to be who he wants to be for them,” Kyra said.
Brayden says responses like “it’s just a migraine” and “you have to learn to live with it” shouldn’t be the only options for patients.
“I think there’s, especially after seeing cardiologists and neurologists, I mean, there’s deeper reasons why migraines occur and there are cures and a lot of people just don’t have somebody to advocate for them,” Brayden said.
To hear about future fundraisers for the Pope family, follow their Facebook page here.
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