Update - August 27, 2025

Thank you again to everyone who has reached out, visited, shared, and donated. It is truly appreciate more than I could ever express.

I have been released from the hospital on oral antibiotics and pain medication. I am completely nonweightbearing on my right leg, and will be spending quite a bit of time in my chair or bed resting, allowing the leg to heal. My current mode of transportation is a wheelchair, crutches, or a walker.

While I’m extremely thankful that I was able to see my kids go to sleep last night and get on the bus this morning, it was an extremely rough night. I was in a lot of excruciating pain, my leg was extremely itchy, and I was having issues getting my leg into a good position.

I am going to be out of work for an undetermined period of time in order to heal both the leg and my internal sepsis. Unfortunately while in the hospital I did develop a UTI as well, so I’m currently on quite a few antibiotics for both the sepsis/infection and the UTI.

I am very thankful that they were able to save the leg, and I’m thankful to have such a supportive immediate and extended family. My husband has been an absolute rock for me through all of this, as well as my oldest child, Aubreighe. Both of them have truly shown up and shown out.

I am so grateful for my parents, my sister, my “favorite ex mother in law” (as well like to say), my friends, my mother in law, and everyone else who has stepped up to show their support and love through this incredibly difficult time. I love you all fully and completely and I’m not sure I can ever repay you all for the love and support I have received throughout this horrible battle with Ehlers-Danlos.

Thank you all so much for your continued support. I’ll keep updating, of course. I have an appointment with my surgeon to check on the status of the infection and the healing process on September 4, so the next update will likely be then as I learn to navigate life in this new, unexpected way.

I cannot thank you all enough for your continued help, thoughts, and donations. It means the absolute world to myself, my husband and our family.

As an unfortunate update, I had my appointment with my surgeon today and I am being re-admitted to the hospital. I will have to have another surgery tomorrow. The infection has gotten worse, the foot looks awful and necrotic.

My surgeon is very frustrated with my leg and extremely concerned. We will not be addressing the broken leg until after we figure out the infection in the leg, as it is continually worsening and therefore more concerning.

Please, please, please share and donate if you can. This is all so difficult and extremely frustrating. Any help could truly go a long way. Any donations will help with our day to day living, medical bills, and any necessary medical equipment once I am discharged.

Thank you all so much for your support. I’m planning to update again after surgery tomorrow.

Update - I am currently being discharged from the hospital yet again. However, this time I have learned that I have broken the same leg that I have been having all of the issues with. It is called a Weber type B fibular fracture. I have to follow up with my surgeon on Tuesday to find out if it needs operated on. I’m having a really hard time, so any donations would truly be a blessing.

Thank you.

My name is Ashley Parrish.

A lot of you likely know me already and are a bit familiar with my medical struggles in recent years.

Initially, my medical journey started when I was around 27/28 years old. I began having issues with dislocations in multiple joints, which led to my diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos, a hypermobility disease that attacks your joints initially, then progresses to attack other major areas of the body. At that point, I was having issues with my right knee dislocating fairly often, and after a lot of different medical offices, we discovered that I not only have Ehlers-Danlos, but I also have primary synovial chondromatosis. This is a disease essentially caused by my Ehlers-Danlos, as when my knee dislocates, it is chipping bone off of my knee and the bone is getting lodged in the synovium fluid under my kneecap, which then causes the bone chips to grow into tumors.

The last surgery I had for tumor removal in the right knee was in September 2024, where they removed over three dozen tumors. Unfortunately, the tumors are back, so once my ankle is fully healed, I’ll be having another tumor removal surgery as well.

Along with the previous health issues, I had my surgeon check my right ankle as well a few months ago as I was having a lot of dislocations and a lot of pain. Unfortunately, the tendons in the ankle were completely shredded, so I had to undergo an ankle reconstruction with a permanent internal bracing installed.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until about 5 weeks post-op when signs of infection became clear. I was taken to the hospital last Monday and was told it wasn’t bad yet. Tuesday, I went to my surgeon and it was absolutely bad, so he started me on two antibiotics. Unfortunately, Tuesday evening, I took a turn for the worse. I tried making it overnight but could not sleep, couldn’t eat, couldn’t function. On Wednesday morning, Justin rushed me to the ER, and immediately upon arriving, they looked at the ankle and said, “You’re being admitted right now.”

I was being admitted because my body was in sepsis and things weren’t looking great. I don’t remember much from the first day or two of being hospitalized, as I was there for 5 days. However, I do know that as soon as they got me to a room in the ER while waiting for my admission room, it took them giving me fentanyl, morphine, Toradol, and a few muscle relaxers to get my body to calm down enough for even a normal blood pressure, as everything at that point was around 160/110.

Upon getting out of the hospital, I’m extremely limited on what I can do. I am unable to walk for another 4-6 weeks at minimum, and I am unable to work for an unknown period of time. That unfortunately leaves us here, not knowing which way is up, or when things will get better.

In the last two years, I have been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos, primary synovial chondromatosis, stage 3 osteoarthritis, a small tumor on my spine, degenerative disc disease in my spinal cord, a few other smaller issues, and I am eligible for a full knee replacement. However, I am so young that we’ve been trying to hold off on the knee replacement because I would likely need it replaced twice in my lifetime if I got it now.

We would greatly appreciate any possible donation; nothing is too small. The impact any donation would have on our lives would be truly incredible.

Thank you all in advance for any help, share, or donation you’re able to provide.