Help Offset Medical Bills for the Fricke Family
I'm Johnna, Alyse's sister, and I've created this fundraiser to raise money for her and her family as her sweet baby, Rhonin, has been in the hospital with an unexplainable illness since August 28th.
Rhonin is quite literally a medical mystery. In his 4th week of life he went through 2 surgeries, 5 IVs, a picc line placement, 2 CT scans, an abdominal ultrasound, multiple blood draws, and many many physical exams.
The full story of Rhonin's condition and the series of events leading up to this post is below, but essentially, I am starting this Go Fund Me in hopes to extend some love, support, and financial relief to my sister and her family.
Not only are they walking through this terrifying unknown with their new baby, but Alyse is already on an unpaid maternity leave, her husband has had to take unpaid time off work, and they also have a 9 year old who has been totally thrown off his norm. Not to mention the fear of what a 3+ week Children's Hospital bill will look like.
Whether you are in a place to give financially or not, we ask that you pray for the family. Pray for supernatural healing of Rhonin. Pray for guidance and discernment for his team of doctors. Pray for answers as to why this happened, and if not answers, then a peace that the miracle has happened. Pray for strength and peace for Alyse and Blake as they face all these uncertainties. Pray for Bentley as he not only wrestles with a change in life with a new brother, but missing his mom and not fully grasping what's going on. Pray for finances not to be a burden. And please pray for continued strength and peace that God is in control.
Thank you for your love and support.
Rhonin's Story
On the morning of Saturday August 28th Alyse noticed swelling on the left side of Rhonin's neck. She called the on call pediatrician who had her bring him in. She sent them straight to Children's Liberty ER who then sent them to Children's main campus ER.
After many hours and a CT scan it was concluded that Rhonin had a major abscess on the left side of his neck, as well as the right side and back of his throat. That day they were admitted to the complex airway ICU and were told he would be having surgery the following morning to drain the abscesses.
The following day Rhonin had his first surgery where they drained the abscesses and put him on broad spectrum IV antibiotics. Immediately he looked better and seemed to feel better too. The cultures from the biopsies showed that he had the bacteria staph causing this infection. This particular staph, however, is on everybody's skin so it is a complete mystery as to why it made him sick.
Three days later our biggest fear came true. Rhonin stopped eating like normal and was extremely lethargic. Come to find out, two of the abscesses had filled back up and we were told Rhonin would have to have a second surgery that same day to drain those abscesses.
This surgery was much harder on Rhonin this time. He was in pain and was exhausted from everything his little body had been put through. The cultures from this surgery showed just the staph at first so they put him on a staph specific antibiotic. About a day or two later two more organisms grew from the culture and the antibiotics had to be changed again.
Rhonin is a medical mystery. He has a team of 50+ doctors following his unheard of case. Immunology is now involved and it is suspected that Rhonin has a disease that causes him to be severely immunocompromised and they are running many tests to figure out what that may be and what that looks like long-term, while also treating his current acute illness.
In his 4th week of life Rhonin went through 2 surgeries, 5 IVs, a picc line placement, 2 CT scans, and abdominal ultrasound, multiple blood draws, and many many physical exams.