Diegel Family

Rachel returned home from work the evening of Thursday, August 16th to Nate expressing that he felt ill- no rhyme or reason, he just felt “off.” He attributed it to not eating/drinking anything all day. Once he ate dinner, he felt better, but still not great.

Rachel left for work early the next day while Nate stayed home with the kids. Rachel only worked a half day, thankfully, and returned home shortly after noon to Nate on the couch, thick blanket wrapped around him, shivering. Rachel took over with the kids while he went to lay down. Several hours later when Rachel went to check on him, Nate told her that he was beginning to lose consciousness. Immediately, Rachel decided it was time to get medical attention. They went to a nearby emergency room in order to receive the quickest treatment possible.

Upon arrival to the ER, multiple tests were run. Meanwhile, Nate said he felt like he was having a stroke. He spiked a high fever, he couldn’t keep concentration, and his vocabulary was not making sense. After a few hours of inconclusive tests, his fever was controlled, and he was given the option to go to Ann Arbor to be admitted there, as this particular location was not a 24-hour facility and was unable to accommodate him overnight. He was also given the option to be discharged and to follow up in a couple of days. He chose to come home and be closely monitored by Rachel.

Late Saturday morning, Nate got out of bed to tell Rachel that the doctor who saw him the evening prior called with his final test results-blood cultures. The blood cultures came back positive for bacteria, meaning he got a blood infection, and was told to go straight to the emergency room. Nate and Rachel immediately drove to University Hospital ER and were expedited into a room due to the seriousness of his condition.

After a multitude of possible diagnoses, it was determined that he was indeed septic, meaning an infection was moving through his bloodstream. Fortunately, he got started on strong IV antibiotics in time and never went into septic shock, a life threatening condition. He was admitted to the inpatient tower that evening and has been there ever since.

His team of doctors knows that he has the infection in his blood and are very aggressively treating it. However, they can’t seem to figure out why or how he got it, but are very concerned that it has congregated to his heart. They are especially concerned due to his extensive medical history as a heart patient.

Nate has literally been fighting for his life over the last several days. It has been very difficult and stressful for Rachel to juggle care for Johnathan and Addison, keep up on basic housework, grocery shopping, etc., as she has been spending most of her time at the hospital at Nate’s bedside. Money will continue to be tight as it is being spent on driving to the hospital, parking, buying multiple meals in the cafeteria, etc. That is not to mention all of the medical bills that are bound to come.

Many people have asked how they can help. As difficult as it is to ask for financial help, this GoFundMe page will be very helpful as all of this has been and will continue to be costly. Another way to help is to deliver meals to the house/hospital. If neither of these are feasible, please pray for the doctors treating Nate, that their hands heal him and work through figuring out what exactly is going on. Please pray for healing for Nate and for strength for the family. Thank you so much for all of your love, support, and prayers, It means so much!