Justin is an ambitious young man who is kind, loving, giving, and strong. Yet, he has been hit with a heavy fight. His struggle began on Dec 19th as what he thought was a simple cold or flu. Justin thought it would just run its course, and he just continued to push through as he had just begun a new job and has yet to acquire any sick time. As the month ticked by, he began to feel even worse, having no idea the battle he was about to face.
On Jan 1, 2026, Justin awoke from a less than restful sleep with a swollen lymph node in his throat, barely able to talk and running a 104 fever. Justin proceeded to Urgent Care only to be given some amoxicillin and sent back home. As days passed, his situation only worsened. On Monday, Jan 5th, Justin went to the ER. After running a few tests, Justin was admitted, and his battle truly began. The growth in his lymph node was a bacteria called Klebsiella. This bacteria can be antibiotic-resistant, which makes it hard to treat and can be extremely dangerous. In addition, Justin also had Mononucleosis. Doctors began to treat him with little response to their efforts. After days of the fight, they gave him steroids as his blood counts were dropping, his liver enzyme crashing, organs swelling, full blood panels completely blowing up. As they eradicated the Mono, it converted to the EBV virus, which is another very rare occurrence. This has a possibility of turning into HLH, which attacks the body and bone marrow, which again is extremely dangerous. This has been a major rollercoaster.
As his doctors continued to try everything with a team of 3 doctors and 4 specialists with little to no improvement, they began to ponder next steps. It was time to do a bone marrow biopsy, which brings us to Jan 13th, 8 days in critical care. After the biopsy was done, the decision was made to transfer him from Rockford to a hospital in Wisconsin in hopes of a better facility for his condition. After being airlifted and getting settled into his new room, the testing and treatments have begun again with a new set of eyes. Justin has relatively good insurance, but with no sick pay and no release in sight, his bills are beginning to pile up. This is where strength in numbers can make a huge difference to help Justin's financial fight. Please give if you can; anything will help as he continues his fight through the toughest time in his life. Thank you for taking the time to read about Justin's fight, and thank you in advance if you can help relieve some of his stress in the financial fight still to come.