Main fundraiser photo

Ryan's Medical Journey & Fight

Donation protected
Hello. My name is Heather and I'm starting this Go Fund Me page for our family. Ryan has been in and out of the hospital since January 30th. He has always worked so hard for our 3 kids and myself but ever since he started having medical issues, working has been stripped away from him. He's unable to work until he is fully healed and because of that, we have fallen behind. He was getting disability benefits for the first 6 months but when he hit that 6 month mark, the money stopped and bills started stacking up. Many of you know and to those who dont, Ryan has had a very rough year. He was diagnosed with diverticulitis in Jan which is usually fixed with antibiotics and diet. However, Ryan needed surgery and ended up having to have over 3 feet of his bowels removed and ended up with a temporary colostomy bag. (All done  laparoscopically) After a whole week of not improving and actually getting worse, we sought out a second opinion. It literally saved his life. It was stressed to us that he needed to have a second surgery and be cut open completely to untwist his bowels that were never corrected the first time and to have a new stoma placed cause the one from the surgery prior had failed. Failed miserably. Fast forward throwing up bile, getting blood clots, and rare allergic reactions... after 40 days in the hospital and almost losing his life, he was free to go home.  The next 2 months were spent with home health nurses who came every other day to change out his dressing while I took their off days. After the home nurse visits stopped, Ryan went back to work. He was only able to make it a week before developing a hernia at his old stoma site. Doctor took him off of work and throughout the entire summer his hernia grew as he got used to his new life with a colostomy bag. Doctor said he wouldn't do a hernia repair at that time due to Ryan's complications from the first time around and would fix the hernia the same time he would do the take down of his colostomy.  We just needed to wait for his bowels to be ready for the big surgery.  We finally got the reversal date in mid July which was set for August 30th. We done all the prep work and we both were excited to finally get him put back together and move forward. At this point, we had done went through our savings that we had put back. School started for our kids August 15th and everything just started piling up after school supplies, clothes, ect. We had officially fell behind.  Surgery! August. 30th. The doctor came out after his surgery and told me everything went great. He had put in a 20 by 20" mesh into his abdomen to hopefully avoid future hernias. He repaired the hernia which was the size of a volleyball and also took out his appendix which we weren't aware of before hand. The way his appendix was shaped is often the shape of those who end up with appendicitis and with the complications Ryan always seems to have, he wanted to avoid another future surgery. Then finally, he took down Ryan's ostomy and hooked him all back together again. 3 big surgeries at the same time. After a couple days his hemoglobin dropped to a 6 so he ended up needing blood transfusions. A few days later he was sent home with a wound vac along with 2 JP drains to remove excess abdominal fluid.  After his first week home the doctor removed the wound vac and 1 of the drains. No issues. The following week, doctor removed the other drain and all his staples. The very next day he started having drainage from a couple areas where he had been stapled. Sure enough, he was beginning to run fevers and started going backwards. The pain alone sent him back to the ER. After numerous test we found out that he's got a 6 inch abcess hanging out in his abdomen. He had a procedure done where they put a drain line directly in the abcess but it was unsuccessful and late last night, (on the 25th) ended up back in surgery to have it drained. He's got 4 Penrose drains now for atleast a week or untill they no longer have output. Hopefully from here on out its blue skies and he heals properly. I was informed that while he was in there cleaning him out, part of the mesh that was placed on August 30th has pulled away from the stomach muscle. He said he, "wants to wait it out and see how everything goes before going back in and jumble everything back up again". He's not completely out of the woods yet but definitely on the right path again.  With Ryan being without pay from disability has really hit us hard. We're not sure when he will return back to work. We have what everyone else has. House payment, (rent) car payment, water, cellphone, electricity,  ect. Everyone has their ups and downs and we're at our absolute lowest right now. Its embarrassing asking for charity but we cant make our kids go without either. It's a hard place I dont wish upon anyone. We're both desperate and anything that you can possibly give and help us out with, we will be grateful. Thank you so much!

Organizer

Heather Baecht
Organizer
Machesney Park, IL

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily.

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about.

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the  GoFundMe Giving Guarantee.