Blog

Introduction – What happened to Ryan?

On Tuesday, September 24, 2024, Ryan woke up to what he thought was a “bad knot” in his right upper glute. The previous night had been filled with fever sweats and some of the most excruciating back pain he had ever experienced. I had a feeling that it was a staph infection, but there didn’t seem to be anything on his skin. Although there was some swelling in the area where he was complaining of pain, we both decided that it was probably just some soreness from exercising too much.

The following days were a progression of pain, fever, swelling in the area, and me (his wife, Erica) asking him daily if he was ready to call the ambulance. He finally called an ambulance to go to the ER on Saturday, September 28. By this point he was almost entirely bedridden, and only able to get to the restroom with a cane. He was generally having a lot of trouble functioning.

While in the ER, they gave him so many different antibiotics and pain killers he was zoning in and out, barely able to communicate with anyone. They took x-rays and CT scans of the area. They drew so much blood and ran a lot of tests. This initial visit showed that he was septic with a 6cm abscess (which turned out to be a hematoma) and pneumonia. He went in for emergency surgery to remove the “abscess.” This initial visit was for 8 days, and they discharged him with 10 days of oral antibiotics. That was not the protocol for sepsis and on October 22, 2024 (one day after my birthday) he called the ambulance again to take another trip to the ER.

This time they found an epidural abscess and osteomyelitis in his L5-S1 spinal joint. After 7 days, he was discharged with a PICC line for at home IV antibiotics. Although, he was not able to walk unassisted. In order to get him into the car to drive home from the hospital it took me and two nurses. To get him from the car to his bed, I recruited our lovely neighbor, Emily, at 10:30pm.

We need your help. Ryan does not have insurance. He will have insurance soon (open enrollment), but until then we have to pay out of pocket for his expenses. Financially, the hardest part of this is going to be affording the IV antibiotics which will be about $400/week for 6 weeks (minimum) and up to 12 weeks. Emotionally, the hardest parts have probably yet to be realized.

Many of you may know Ryan from the gym, school, social functions, or just around our neighborhood. He has always been an active and adventurous person. If you don’t remember him, your K-9 best friend surely would. He’s an avid animal lover with a soft spot for dogs. Professionally, he’s a biochemist. When he’s not working he’s either at the gym, rolling on the jujitsu mats, or home snuggling his beloved cats.

This whole ordeal has left him immobilized and searching for a sense of self.

I am his caretaker, his wife, his best friend. If you can help us, please do. We see you. We love you. We need you. Even if all you can do is share this website link, your help means more than we can express.

We hope to see you around again soon. Please give your doggos some pets for Ryan today, and let them know he’ll be better soon. Thank you for reading.