Hello, my name is Ryan Smith. I am an RN, a father to two wonderful boys, and a husband. About 3.5 years ago, I started having steadily increasing abdominal pain and was diagnosed with Chron's disease. While working with my GI to get it under control with medications, my colon perforated, which means it ripped open, fell apart, and was just emptying into my abdomen. 

They were able to save my life, but I awoke with drains, multiple ostomies, and a huge incision that took 6 months to close. Over the past 3.5 years, I have had more than 20 surgeries to get me functioning as normally as possible. Unfortunately, a recent CT shows I still have more to go, since my intestines are spilling through my abdominal wall through a large hernia. The same CT identified lymphoma, and I will be starting on that journey this week. 

Our family has incurred over $160,000 in debt, and the last CT scan was denied by insurance, adding $6,067.13 to our debt. We have sold everything of value, including 2 nice vehicles. Now we have reached the point where we can no longer pay our bills and we have nothing left to sell. With your help, our family will be able to pay our bills and continue on the road to a normal life. Anything donated above that will go towards past medical bills of $160,000, as well as a cheap used car. Please help our family move forward from this medical crisis so I can get back to work, and pay it forward. Thank you for your time!

The Smith family

This is the condensed version of our story. If you find it interesting and want more information, the complete story is posted below:

--‐--‐-------------------‐------------------------------------------------

Hello, my name is Ryan Smith, and over the past 3 years my family and I have struggled with medical crisis after medical crisis. I am an RN, and I was working at Peacehealth SW in September of 2020 when I started experiencing a major increase in the abdominal pain I have suffered from as a child. The pain continued to increase, and I became so sick that my boss, co-workers, and the doctors I worked with all began to insist I was too sick to work, and encouraging me to go to the Emergency Department every time I attempted to come in to work, sending me home if I declined. This was difficult for me, because as a nurse of 10 years, and a person lucky enough to LOVE his job and sincerely enjoy his patients, I feel incomplete unless I am caring for others who I feel really need my help.

The declination of my health continued, and I was ultimately diagnosed with Crohn’s. After this diagnosis, and a continued increase in pain and Crohn’s symptoms, I realized everyone was right, I could no longer work consistently enough to provide the kind of in-depth holistic care my patients deserved, and it would be best for them if I stepped back and let another RN provide the quality of care, I could no longer provide myself. This was during the early part of December of 2020. With Peacehealth SW's guidance, it was decided the best path forward was for me to resign due to health reasons, which I did end up doing. Many tears were cried over this decision, because, as I said, I loved my job, and cared deeply for my patients. Furthermore, when I’m not working, I missing out on helping others, something that is incredibly important to my mental and emotional well-being.

This presented another problem, and it has been a HUGE ONE. I had not been at my new job at Peacehealth SW wound and ostomy clinic for a full year. I was 6-8 weeks short, and therefore was not eligible for FMLA nor disability. I was not eligible for COBRA for that time period as well, which resulted in an immediate cancelation of my insurance. I figured I would certainly be eligible for unemployment or SOME kind of assistance, as I have always paid in to, and have been honored to do so. Imagine my surprise when ultimately, I realized I was sick with Crohn’s, unable to work, and was told that because of the way I was told to resign, I was not then nor would I be eligible for any help until after I have worked elsewhere and have new information to present.

After eleven months of medical appointment after appointment trying to get Crohn’s under control, we were not having luck. They could not get a clear idea of how bad it truly was, because the gastroenterologist was afraid of perforating my bowels, even with the pediatric scope. Then, during the week of Thanksgiving in 2021, it got much worse. We had not had any luck in treating the condition with my gastroenterologist over roughly eleven months, and then, in the middle of the night, I awoke suddenly with the most severe abdominal pain I had ever felt. I told my wife and my sons to always remember I love them no matter what. I was certain that my colon had perforated, or exploded, and I would be passing away within a day or two.

I woke up 3 days later, strapped to the bed, and sporting the incision displayed in the picture, along with 2 ostomies, 3 drains, an NG tube, heart monitors, O2 monitor, etc. I was super confused and sick with sepsis, and I was certain that I was somewhere dangerous and was being tortured. I almost got loose and almost pulled my catheter out with the balloon still inflated. Apparently, it was really touch and go, and the surgeons (many of them, I feel I know every nurse, doctor, and surgeon AT PHSW now) had kept me in a temporary coma and intubated for 3 days while they planned and performed the several surgeries required to put me back together. This means my wife, my sons, and my parents had to wait for 3 days to get a good understanding of whether I would survive or not, which must have been so tough on them that it breaks my heart. I finally beat the sepsis and was allowed to go home. I hadn’t been able to have a visitor the entire time I was in the hospital, which was hard for ALL OF US, so I felt very blessed, though I went home with the open incision in the picture.

In less than a week, I was back in the hospital with sepsis again, though I had gotten to spend Christmas with my family, though very little of it is remembered thanks to sepsis confusion. After another few weeks, I was back out, in the beginning of 2022. I was bedridden and having immense difficulty dealing with the ostomies and drains. My wife had now missed so much work, and ended up having to quit at that point, as it had become neccesary for me to have an in-home caregiver and a driver. After about 6 months, the incision was finally healed, but I was having to stuff a new piece of folded up paper towels in my belt line, because fluid was pouring out of a hole that had formed. It turns out that the hole was a fistula, a tube formed by the body from my colon to under my belly button, that drains fecal material or fluid from the fistula wound itself. After the incision was healed and the fistula identified, I had 8 surgeries performed by two surgeons in 8 hours to move forward. They removed one of the two ostomies, cut out all the scar tissue, detached my muscles and reattached them after removing the scar tissue, removed my sigmoid colon (which they said was like a brick, or coral), and several other things I don’t recall of the top of my head.

After this group of surgeries, we were going to be able to have the second ostomy removed three months later, and get me back to normal, as far as being able to work and start trying to figure out how to successfully treat the chron’s that still needs to be figured out. However, I began to have another hole that was draining, kind of in the same area as before. Though it’s like a billion to one odds that a person get two fistulas in a row, I went the extra mile and did it. This led to yet another surgery in which a clamp had to be placed over the fistula opening inside my colon. After three more months, and several uncomfortable tests to ensure my fistula was closed, the surgery was finally scheduled to get rid of the second ostomy.

On the date of surgery, it was scheduled for 2:00 pm. I got there and got prepped, and waited until almost midnight before the surgeon and I cancelled the surgery. A more critical case had come up, and somebody had needed him more than me. I was happy to reschedule knowing this. When the next date came up, I went to get my pre-surgery covid test, and was surprised when it came back positive. Surgery was then rescheduled for another month out. Fortunately, that date came and surgery was performed without complication. My legs had started swelling for some reason, but we went ahead with surgery anyways and decided to deal with the swelling later.

After this surgery, I decided I could not put off going to the dentist any longer. Several teeth were broken from intubations, anesthesiologists, and medications. I had been on multiple antibiotics for years straight, and prolonged usage of those medications caused the enamel in my teeth to break down to a state with the properties of chalk. After every surgery I had woken up with more teeth missing, which would be in my mouth still for me to spit out, or a few times where they appeared in my ostomy bag a few hours or a day later. It had gotten to the point that I could no longer eat effectively, and could only have soft foods. The embarrassment from the way it must have looked was so huge, and I cried ALOT over this problem. Well, multiple dentists said the only option was to pull them and get implants. I borrowed another $15,000 for the first half of the procedure, and had it done in one day. I borrowed another $2,700 for a pair of dentures, which has caused sores in my mouth and been unusable for the six weeks Ive had them while the wounds heal. In ten weeks, I have the next part of the process, and am not sure how to put the funds together, nor do I know where I can borrow from next. I know it was probably premature to start the process without having it all figured out, but they were so bad they were causing me a lot of pain and discomfort.

At my checkup a couple of months later, my legs were MUCH WORSE with the swelling, and instead of cutting me loose as had been the plan, the surgeon was concerned about the swelling, and ordered a CT for me to see if we could figure out why the swelling is so bad that I can’t even fit in shoes, and the legs look like they are falling apart. When I started writing this, that’s where I was at, and hoping to go straight back to work. However, a couple of days ago, I got the results of the CT I had a couple of weeks ago. I have multiple hernias, with multiple loops of bowels protruding out. This will require more surgery, and I have an appointment on 6/22/2023 with my surgeon to discuss and schedule surgery. The other diagnosis, which caught me off guard COMPLETELY, was lymphoma. I am waiting for Compass Oncology to contact me and schedule an appointment to create a plan for treatment. My main surgeon, a colorectal surgeon, is willing to cut one of the several “abnormally enlarged” lymph nodes out from my groin and biopsy it, but is concerned because I already am immunocompromised, and doesn’t want to take it without getting the go ahead from the oncologist. The findings in the CT impressions just states, “Early Lymphoma”, so it appears that we are going to have to buckle up and start another journey. I am hopeful after the hernia surgeries and figuring out why I’m having edema that is destroying my legs, Ill be well enough to work again still, and that I can continue to work through the cancer treatments until whatever end it may come to.

Throughout this period, in order to survive financially, we sold everything we own of value. We sold our car, a 2014 Jeep for $7,000 to help us stay afloat. We kept our 2015 Honda Pilot touring edition, and within MONTHS of selling the jeep (and spending all of it immediately to avoid losing our home, electricity, etc.), the Honda stopped starting. We took it to Gaynor’s Automotive, who told me it wasn’t worth it to fix it, due to two head gaskets needing to be replaced at an expense of over $10,000. I didn’t even know a car could HAVE more than one head gasket, I’d never heard of such a thing. We were persuaded to sell it to the scrap yard, for which we got $400 for. I should have looked, because the cars value was still over $17,000, so if I HAD fixed it, we could have at least gotten some real money back. I have no idea where we would have gotten the $10,000 to fix it up front, so we were just left more hopeless and lacking a car, as well as any money to get a new one. I was left begging for rides, and often having to reschedule medical appointments due to not being able to get there. Finally, we bought a cheap 1993 Honda Accord for $1,600. It was cheap and dirty, with a weird odor, but it ran well and got us where we needed to go. That is, until it got stolen out of my parking spot at our apartment several months ago. The police said that they have a 90% rate of finding lost cars, that it could be a day, or it could be a year. Currently it has been nine months, and we haven’t heard a peep. I am left begging for rides or walking, though my 80-year-old father has been a GODSEND in getting to my medical appointments. Since my entire life has revolved around my sickness(es) for close to three years (literally, not one activity with my wife, not with my sons, nor anyone else not focused on me being sick) rides to my medical appointments are the only thing I have.

We sold thousands of dollars of my music equipment. We sold virtually all my wife’s jewelry, even the good stuff. Ultimately, we pawned or sold everything of any value, though we did our best to never touch our sons stuff, and were at least successful at that much. We took a $50,000 loan that we ended up losing more than half of due to fraud and theft, perpetrated by someone who we considered family. Someone that was supposed to be helping me as a caregiver. He even stole physical items out of our home, including cell phones and video game systems from our sons. Now he has left the state, and I’ll probably never see him again.

I have applied to every government program I have heard about, and the only thing we have ever qualified for is food stamps. We are so blessed for having this resource, which has insured that our sons will have fresh, quality food at all times. This has been a lifesaver. I feel proud that as soon as I get back to work, some of the taxes I pay will go to fund this wonderful resource that is in a way, for the people, by the people.

In the hopes that this is treatable and I can get back to work, I need some help. If I’m NOT able to work, I’m going to need help just simply to survive. I need some kind of vehicle to get to work, medical appointments, and to my parents, as they often depend on me for a great many things. My wife needs a vehicle to run our to their commitments, as well as for taking care of errands for the house and family, though we are happy to share one between the four drivers. It can just be tough as they go to different schools at different times, one to Hudsons Bay, and the other to iTech. My father has been taking and picking them up every day, and it is simply too much for him. We need to move to a new place in a safer community. I need help paying off some of the roughly $160,000 in debt that I have incurred over the past three years. My boys are both college bound in the next couple of years, and now I won’t be able to help them with loans nor with cash unless somebody is willing to help us. The boys have been pushing me to do this, and I have always declined until now, because I am a person who helps others, not one who asks for help. They seem to think that this is the answer to all of our problems, while I just feel shame and embarrassment for asking in the first place. That being said, if anyone DOES read this and DOES feel for whatever reason, the desire to pitch in to help our family get back on track, we appreciate you more than you could possibly know, you are TRULY a blessing. If not and nobody reads it, at least it’s been somewhat therapeutic! Thanks for your time!!!